For sale: luxury jet (clamped)

The High Sheriff of Kent is to decide on a buyer this week for Britain's largest and most expensive impounded vehicle; a Saudi luxury jet.

The pounds 1.5m Boeing 707, which has accrued parking fines of pounds 8,000 a month at Kent International Airport in Manston, is set to take off again after tenders were invited last week.

The Sheriff seized the plane in January, and, to prevent its owners from attempting to steal it back, some equipment has been removed.

At least fifteen creditors have taped writs to the aircraft, demanding about pounds 100,000, and an investigation was launched last year to trace the owners, believed to be an elusive company called Al Wizzar.

David Hedges, the airport's commercial manager, denied reports that the jet was equipped with a four-poster bed and a gold-plated Jacuzzi, or that it had been used for "immoral purposes". In reality, an airport statement said, it was a "modestly luxurious executive jet".