Move to strip controversial businessman of MBE

Martin Shipton

A concerned group of citizens has written to the Cabinet Office, calling for a controversial businessman to be stripped of his MBE.

They argue that David Lewis, of New Inn, near Pontypool, should not have been awarded the honour in the first place, and that his conduct since has demonstrated that he was an unworthy recipient.

In 2025 Nation.Cymru revealed how Mr Lewis had a conviction for defrauding a bank of £88,000 to fund his gambling addiction and how he had assaulted an elderly solicitor outside his Newport office.

There are currently fears that he will renege on his company’s responsibility to restore the now disused Ffos-y-Fran mine near Merthyr Tydfil, which was the largest opencast mine in Wales.

Fresh fears about the restoration have arisen after another company owned by Mr Lewis was put into compulsory liquidation by Britain’s tax authority.

HMRC secured a High Court winding-up order against Jackson Properties Ltd, whose sole director is Mr Lewis. The firm owed a so-far-undisclosed amount in unpaid tax.

Its most recently filed accounts, for the 12 months to July 2024, showed it had debts totalling £344,987. But with land and buildings valued at £293,530 and debts owed to it of £81,113, the company was said to be in credit by £29,656. However, the granting of the winding-up order suggests the accounts painted an over-optimistic view of the firm’s prospects.

Mr Lewis is also the sole director of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, which operated the Ffos-y-Fran mine and is legally responsible for restoring the land occupied by the mine.

In 2024 the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee published a report that described the “epic mismanagement” of the Ffos-y-Fran mine at Merthyr Tydfil, saying nothing similar must be allowed to happen in any community in Wales.

The licence to extract coal from Ffos-y-Fran expired in September 2022, but local residents reported that the mine was still operating – illegally – many months after this before the site was closed in November 2023.

According to the latest accounts of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, a sum of around £86.4m has been earmarked for the restoration of the mine. However, the firm submitted a restoration plan to Merthyr Tydfil council that was far more modest than had been expected.

The diminished plan would leave three coal tips in place, with the company warning that it had “insufficient funds” to deliver a far more extensive plan to restore the landscape, which had previously been agreed.

Under the scaled-down proposals, the company would seek to reduce the height of one coal tip and leave two others in place.

In April 2026, the Welsh Government “called in” the scaled-down restoration scheme, meaning it, rather than Merthyr Tydfil council, will decide whether to grant planning permission.

Stripped

Nation.Cymru wrote to Mr Lewis, stating: “We have been contacted by a group of concerned citizens who have written to the Cabinet Office asking that you should be stripped of the MBE you were awarded at Buckingham Palace in 2007.

“They state in their letter: ‘The reasons for our request are inter alia the following.

‘1 Lewis was convicted of a £88,000 fraud at Cardiff Crown Court in 2003. Lewis had sought to pull off a sophisticated scam in which he, a gambling addict, had run up enormous losses with Stan James Bookmakers but attempted to renege on payment and only admitted the offences when the complainants provided irrefutable evidence via telephone recordings. Lewis escaped custody by the skin of his teeth. A report of the sentencing hearing can be viewed on WalesOnline, which contains the withering comments of the trial judge as to the honesty and probity of Lewis. As such it beggars belief that he was awarded an MBE shortly afterwards.

‘2 Lewis assaulted a septuagenarian solicitor Robert Davies MBE, throttling him at his offices following Mr Davies giving oral evidence at the High Court in London in a case involving Lewis. The assault was captured on CCTV and was reported in the media. You can view the footage on either WalesOnline or MailOnline. Mr Davies filed complaints to Gwent Police of common assault and interfering with witnesses.

‘3 Lewis has reneged on a contractual obligation to remediate the Ffos Y Fran mine at Merthyr which he owns. Costs associated with the same are circa £90 million. A planning application for a wholly inadequate restoration scheme has been called in by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament).

‘In conclusion, Lewis is a vile, dishonest, unscrupulous individual and as such it is preposterous that he has been awarded a public honour that bestows some gravitas which he certainly doesn’t deserve.

‘We contend that there were clearly inadequate checks at the relevant time and moreover his egregious behaviour since he received the award should be brought to your attention.’”

Mr Lewis was invited to respond, but he did not do so.

‘Role models’

A statement on the UK Government Cabinet Office’s website says: “There is an expectation that those who receive an honour are, and will continue to be, good citizens and role models.

“An honour can be withdrawn (or ‘forfeited’) for a variety of reasons, including criminal conviction and bringing the honours system into disrepute. A decision to forfeit an honour can be based on events that pre-date the award (for example, a past criminal conviction, even if spent), or conduct that occurs after the award is made.”

Recommendations on whether individuals should be stripped of an award are made by the Forfeiture Committee.

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