SIR DAVID and Sir Frederick Barclay now own La Moinerie, La Rondellerie and Le Vieux Port tenements and Le Clos Messervy freehold in Sark. In addition, Duncan Barclay has bought La Fripponerie.

The deals – which have split the island’s community – finally went through the Seneschal’s Court for £25,000 each yesterday. Long-term leases had been secured months earlier.

Some believed Sark had lost out because of the low purchase prices, but a letter sent by the Brecqhou owners’ advocate, Gordon Dawes, to Seigneur Michael Beaumont ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of Chief Pleas cast a different light on the transactions.

Mr Beaumont had made a statement at the end of August that was labelled in the letter as a ‘gross misrepresentation of what had occurred’.

Attempts had been made by law firm Ozannes to put three of the deals before the Seneschal’s Court on 31 August, but despite assurances that this could happen, the matter had been put back.

Mr Beaumont assigned his claim to the feudal due of treizieme on property transactions to Chief Pleas on 1 September.

‘My clients say that there has been no proper explanation of why the court would not allow these transactions to be presented on 31 August,’ said Advocate Dawes in the letter.

‘It is very clear to them that you liaised with the Seneschal with the result that the 31 August date was put back, with the further consequence that the assignment of treizieme came into effect the following day.

‘Accordingly, you purported to present this as a matter affecting the public purse in your statement on 29 August to Chief Pleas, which my clients believe is, quite frankly, outrageous.’

Tenant John Donnelly also backed that interpretation of events.

A censure motion was passed on Wednesday by Chief Pleas asking those selling to resign any committee or other positions they held.

Mr Donnelly said that the motion was clearly designed to imply some wrongdoing.

The timing of Mr Beaumont’s decision to hand over treizieme amounted to a manoeuvre to cast legitimate transactions in a bad light, he added.

‘The less-informed Sark public will be under the impression that the purchases deprived the treasurer of a considerable amount of revenue when in fact there cannot be any legitimate mechanism for receipt by the treasurer until the property tax is in place.’

Under these circumstances the proposition was, he said, a discredit to Chief Pleas.

Duncan Spence, who has sold the Clos Messervy freehold but not his Aval du Creux tenement, considered that Sir David and Sir Frederick would be able to do more with the property than he could.

‘I’ve been refused permission about three times to develop the Avenue site,’ he said. ‘I think they will get on and do it – they will bring a lot to the island.’