Sir Gilbert Stanley Thomas is a British businessman and property developer. He founded the catering company

Peter's Food Services Peter's Food Service is a Bedwas, Wales based baker and supplier of pies, pasties, slices, sausage rolls and factored products into retail, food service, catering and hospitality outlets across the United Kingdom. Today it is one of the largest em ...

and also owned a 20% stake in TBI Airports, until it was sold in 2004. Thomas was knighted in the 2006 birthday honours for "services to Business and to Charity in Wales". In 2019 the Sunday Times estimated his net worth jointly with his brother Peter Thomas at £228 million. Peter died in 2023.

Controversy over land sales

In 2015 the

Wales Audit Office Audit Wales (), formerly the Wales Audit Office (WAO, ), is an independent public body which was established by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; , formerly the National Assembly for Wales) on 1 April 2005. It has overall responsibility for auditing ...

reported that taxpayers may have lost out on millions of pounds in the sale of government-owned land to companies owned by Thomas, through sales not advertised on the open market.

Andrew RT Davies Andrew Robert Tudor Davies CBE (born 1968) is a Welsh politician who has served as Member of the Senedd for the South Wales Central region since 2007. He has previously served as Leader of the Welsh Conservative Senedd Group from 2011 to 2 ...

, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, commented, "It's an absolute disgrace... millions of pounds

ave is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...

been lost to the public purse as a result of this land sale." He commented that it may have been the biggest-ever financial loss to the taxpayer in a single transaction. The Wales Audit Office reported that the government-owned

Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales Regeneration may refer to: Science and technology * Regeneration (biology), the ability to recreate lost or damaged cells, tissues, organs and limbs * Regeneration (ecology), the ability of ecosystems to regenerate biomass, using photosynthesis ...

sold 15 pieces of land in 2012 for £21.7 million to

South Wales Land Developments South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

(SWLD), a firm financed by a Guernsey-based company owned by Thomas. But the district valuer estimated that the individual pieces of land were in fact together worth £36 million. In addition, around 120 acres of farmland in Cardiff were sold privately to SWLD for £2 million, while the land's value on the open market should have been around £20 million. Just four months after the sale,

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff () is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Administrative divisions of Wales, principal areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...

published a planning blueprint that increased the market value of the same land to £120 million - 60 times the original sale price of the land. The Wales Audit Office report concluded that there were significant flaws throughout the sale process. Thomas refused to be interviewed for the report.

References

Living people 20th-century British businesspeople 21st-century British businesspeople 20th-century Welsh businesspeople 21st-century Welsh businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{UK-business-bio-stub