He is the elder son and heir of British peer Colwyn Philipps, 3rd Viscount St Davids (d.2009), and Augusta Victoria Correay Larraín (a Chilean national, from Santiago).
[5] In September 2008, having been denied bail as a flight risk, Philipps spent more than a year in prison in Nuremberg while the German authorities investigated claims of the improper use of company funds.
[3] In March 2012, Philipps unsuccessfully sued offshore legal advisors Corporate & Chancery Group for £110 million in the Supreme Court of Mauritius, alleging fraud and mismanagement.
[9][12] Following a complaint made in November 2016, Philipps was arrested in January 2017 by Metropolitan Police officers investigating online abuse against a 51-year-old woman.
In March 2017, he was charged with malicious communications with racially aggravated factors, over alleged threats against Gina Miller, who was behind a successful legal challenge against the UK government's intention to give notice to leave the European Union without an act of parliament.
[18] The appeal was abandoned by Philipps on 25 August 2017 some fifteen minutes after Judge Deborah Taylor informed Southwark Crown Court that there was a risk his sentence could be increased.