Owen John Oyston (born 3 January 1934) is an English businessman best known as the former majority owner of Blackpool Football Club.
On 25 February 2019, Oyston and his daughter, Natalie Christopher, were removed from the board of Blackpool Football Club.
After undertaking various sales jobs based in or around Blackpool, Oyston had considerable success in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the estate agency business.
In 1987, he sold Oyston's Estate Agents for an estimated £37 million to Royal Insurance,[2] just weeks before the stock market crash.
Oyston also acquired The Superstation, which had been set up in 1987 as a central, syndicated overnight sustaining service for independent local radio in the UK.
He attempted to move the home ground to a £100 million development at Whyndyke Farm on Preston New Road, supported by Fylde Borough councillor Paul Hayhurst.
[8] After this move failed to work out his ambitions were eventually realised when he invested in a stadium with new stands, restaurants and a 70-bedroom hotel in the club's original location at Bloomfield Road.
"[7] Oyston made his first public appearance at Bloomfield Road since his release from prison, in February 2002 at the opening of two new stands at the stadium.
[10] On 6 November 2017, Oyston and his son Karl were found in a high court judgment to have operated an "illegitimate stripping" of Blackpool F.C., paying £26.77 million out of the club to companies they owned.
The court found that Oyston and his son had abused their majority shareholding position at the club in a manner that was detrimental both to the business and Belokon.
[13] Following further legal action by Belokon to obtain payment from Oyston, on 13 February 2019 High Court appointed receiver Paul Cooper, of David Rubin & Partners, removed Oyston from the board of Blackpool Football Club, along with his daughter Natalie Christopher.
On 2 March 1992, World in Action screened a report, entitled The Dirty War, describing an alleged campaign against Oyston by Michael Murrin, chairman of the Preston Ratepayers' Association.
The television report stated that Murrin had tape-recorded his conversations with his supporters, including the Conservative MPs Sir Peter Blaker and Robert Atkins.
However, the same week, an early day motion was made in the Houses of Parliament that called on those responsible for the report to 'apologise and to improve their ethical standards in future', because of the omission of information such as how Dale Campbell-Savours asked a question about Oyston's company in parliament on 13 July 1988, and tabled a motion about it on 6 July 1988, thus making clear that Oyston's affairs were of interest on both sides of the House of Commons.
[16] In April 1992, Esquire stated that the principal source of funds for the seven-year campaign had been William Harrison (1921–1999), a Lancashire property developer.
Or how two Tory MPs, a fish and chip shop owner, and a Blackpool wheeler dealer with a secret grudge tried to ruin a socialist millionaire.
She also admitted that it was only after being contacted by police officers investigating the model agency that she felt compelled to speak out having previously made no allegation against Oyston.
After failing at first to reach a verdict, the jury eventually found Oyston guilty of rape and indecent assault.
[2][20] During the trial, Oyston also claimed he was the victim of a long-running conspiracy by two government ministers, and that a "very nasty campaign" had been waged against him for up to 12 years.
[21] After his conviction Oyston continued to maintain his innocence, claiming that he had been framed in an elaborate conspiracy involving business rivals and government ministers.
Questions were raised in the House of Commons, particularly by Labour MP Dale Campbell-Savours who brought the matter up a number of times from January 1998 onwards.
In March 1999 his victim brought a civil action against Oyston, claiming £500,000 for psychological damage, which he settled out of court.
He also repeated allegations of a conspiracy, claiming police had been told by a businessman in the West Midlands three months before his arrest that he had paid £5,000 to a woman to "set Owen up".
They ruled that it was a fair hearing and that fresh evidence adduced by Oyston in the rape case which was refused by the Court of Appeal was inadmissible.