Son of Caparo steel magnate was depressed over its failure, his inquest hears

THE youngest son of Caparo steel magnate Lord Paul jumped to his death from the balcony of his family’s luxury penthouse in central London after becoming depressed about the company’s lapse into administration, an inquest heard.

Angad Paul, 45, suffered fatal injuries in the fall last November, which came just two weeks after the Black Country-based steel group’s collapse.

The inquest was told that father-of-two Mr Paul blamed himself for the failure of the business and wanted to atone for what had happened.

He had run Caparo Industries since taking over the business from his father 20 years ago.

However, Westminster Coroner’s Court was told that most of the decisions surrounding the business were still taken by Lord Paul, who founded the business in 1968.

The court also heard that Mr Paul had been trying to wean himself off anti-depressants and even travelled to the Amazon rainforest to spend time with a remote tribe in the hope of finding a solution.

Delivering her verdict, coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said Mr Paul would have very ill and in poor mental health.

She said he would also have been feeling bad for the hundreds of people who were about to lose their jobs at the steel group.

She said she was satisfied that he had killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.

Caparo had lapsed into administration in October last year with the immediate loss of 450 jobs – 323 of them in the Black Country.

Much of the remaining workforce was saved when administrators PwC completed a series of deals to sell off the various parts of the business.
 
The last was completed in November and saw Liberty Steel, owned by the Gupta family, acquire Caparo Tubular Solutions, which includes the businesses of Caparo Precision Tubes Oldbury, Caparo Tube Components, Caparo Accles and Pollock, Hub Le Bas and the Caparo Tubes Tredegar asset. The move saved the jobs of more than 330 people.