Battle to evict the Versace

Release time：2024-05-21 07:30:31 Source：Culture Chronicle news portal

He is the self-styled mystic with a fondness for fast cars and designer clothes who set up a luxury 'healing' retreat in a £4 million Highland castle.

However, 'Shanti' Mark Koppikar, dubbed the Guru of Glenborrodale, is facing a battle to remain there – amid moves to have the castle repossessed as part of a legal bid to claw back debts totalling millions.

Mr Koppikar, who describes himself as a 'Shanti', or peace-bringer, bought his Category A-listed castle on the Ardnamurchan peninsula for £3.75 million in 2022, and uses it as a home and centre for 'reflection'.

He hosts a community of followers and offers 'satsangs', a form of spiritual instruction, from his five-storey castle, with a series of two-and-a-half hour sessions advertised this month at £32 a time.

Mr Koppikar, 57, teaches his followers how to live happier lives – with or without money – and fulfil their potential.

'Shanti' Mark Koppikar (pictured), dubbed the Guru of Glenborrodale, is facing a battle to remain at his £4 million Highland castle – amid moves to have the castle repossessed as part of a legal bid to claw back debts totalling millions.

Mr Koppikar, who describes himself as a 'Shanti', or peace-bringer, bought his Category A-listed castle (pictured) on the Ardnamurchan peninsula for £3.75 million in 2022, and uses it as a home and centre for 'reflection'

But the former shamanic healer is embroiled in a battle to keep the castle, which stands in 133 acres, with his 'ashram', or spiritual retreat, at the centre of moves over debts of £2,994,732 to a company, Rain Dance Investments, which holds 'security' over the property. We can reveal that administrators, appointed last year to oversee the running of Mr Koppikar's company, Shanti Estates, now intend to 'obtain vacant possession' of the castle and put it up for sale.

Administrator Brian Milne said: 'I have invited the occupants to enter into an agreement to depart the castle voluntarily, on a mutually agreed date, but the occupants have failed to enter into such an agreement.

'I am currently in the process of submitting applications, via the various routes available to me, to have the occupants ordered to provide me with vacant possession of the castle by the relevant authorities.'

Administrators estimate Glenborrodale is now worth £3.9 million. Meanwhile, Mr Koppikar retains the backing of his 'followers' who have launched a £100,000 fundraising scheme – with just £3,864 raised so far.

The appeal delivered online by his devotees, and entitled Help Save our Ashram!, states: 'Our community is made up of 60 residential and non-residential volunteers, who are devoted to bringing peace and enlightenment to the world, guided by Shanti and his teachings.'

They ask for help to 'ensure this place remains a beacon of spirituality, in service to humanity, for generations to come.'

We told previously how Mr Koppikar, who describes himself as a Christian Hindu mystic, drove a Maserati sports car and favours designer clothes from luxury brand Versace.

He said he was initiated into Central American shamanism in 1997, describing this as having a 'deep transformative effect' and worked as a shamanic healer before establishing a centre of holistic psychology in Germany in 2009.

Speaking to The Scottish Mail on Sunday in 2022, he said: 'It is just a concept that spiritual people should be poor. I was poor a long time. I saw one can be totally happy without money but I had a question in my head: 'Is it possible to be totally happy with money?'

'I want to prove you can be happy with or without money.'

One nine-day retreat at the castle last year, entitled Freedom and Abundance, cost £3,600.

The former shamanic healer is embroiled in a battle to keep the castle, which stands in 133 acres, with his 'ashram', or spiritual retreat, at the centre of moves over debts of £2,994,732 to a company, Rain Dance Investments, which holds 'security' over the property

Born to an Indian father and German mother, Mr Koppikar trained as a banker before studying psychology.

Rain Dance Investments declined to comment.

Mr Koppikar said: 'Unfortunately we are not permitted to comment at the moment, as per the rules of administration.'

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