British Reporter Disowns Bermuda Gaffe

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

30 October 2002

English reporter, Patrick Middleton has attempted to distance himself from comments which he made about Bermuda during a radio interview on the BBC World Service last week.

Speaking on the Newshour programme on Wednesday about Boris Becker, the allegedly Monaco-resident former Wimbledon tennis champion who recently escaped jail over claims of tax evasion, Mr Middleton implied that both Bermuda and Monaco were 'boring', and that residents of both jurisdictions often felt the need to escape to other countries.

However, when questioned by the Bermudian Royal Gazette last week, Mr Middleton denied that he had said any such thing:

'No way did I say Bermuda was boring. In fact, I said Bermuda was a very nice and attractive place, but people who live there have told me that they feel the need to get away to somewhere like New York now and again,' he explained.

However, he then proceeded to leap from the frying pan to the fire by asserting, that Monaco, on the other hand, is a dull place to live.

'There are lots of people living there just for tax reasons and the place is incredibly boring,' he told the newspaper, continuing: 'There's nothing to do. You see people there walking their dogs and looking really downcast. In fact, the whole of the South of France is boring.'

According to the Royal Gazette, Mr Middleton is currently resident in Nice, in Southern France.

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