Sheffield Tribune

How an election in a Slovakian village led to violence in Page Hall ‘It's about ego. The feeling of being the king of the village’

In Page Hall, the area is once again being swarmed by police. Tensions in the tightly packed terrace streets have been high for several weeks.

Read @danhayesjourno.bsky.social story of the recent clash between warring sides of the Mižigár family www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/how-an-elect...

Sheffield Tribune Sheffield's quality newspaper, delivered via email.

The Secret series is always a hit with readers, but it's only available to our paying subscribers. If you're intrigued, join the Tribune community today:

In our Secret series, we've spilled the beans on what it's really like to work as a local bus driver, A&E doctor and postie. Who should we speak to next?

Another beautiful day in Sheffield 🌞

Where are you going for your lunchtime walk?

Hercules to Hockney: Queering Sheffield’s art collection ‘Local voices are literally the bones of this exhibition’

A major new exhibition at the Graves Gallery aims to unearth hidden queer stories in the city’s art archives.

The show covers thousands of years of history, from Hercules to David Hockney, as well as loads of art from Sheffield itself, and some very snazzy wallpaper.

✍️ @alimkheraj.bsky.social

🇸🇰 Do we have any Slovakian readers living in Sheffield who could help us with a story? Please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk if so! 🇸🇰

TAPROOM NEWS! Introducing Abbeydale Beerworks - just 200 steps from the brewery roller shutters! We're taking on 298 Abbeydale Road, previously the wonderful Turner's. We can’t wait to play a new part in the neighbourhood that means so much to us and that we’ve called home for the past 30 years.

If anyone has the goss from inside the relocation campaign, such as where the venue might hope to move, please get in touch!

Our favourite donations to the Leadmill relocation fund so far, featuring a belated confession and £1 each from (allegedly) Richard Hawley and the former Leadmill building's new owner

It’s been a remarkable few weeks and this morning we’ve just hit 300 pledges 👏🏼

We wanted to share some of the messages we’ve received along the way. They’ve meant a huge amount.

Launching a new newsroom is simple in theory:

If 500 people back it, we build it ⚒️

We’re working towards bringing independent journalism to West Yorkshire - and support like this from Robyn Vinter really means a lot.

tips! tips! tips! api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=... @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social

Your briefing is out! 🗞️

Today we bring you news of two new city centre neighbourhoods containing almost 1,200 homes, a heartwarming tale of a goose mauled by a dog in the Rivelin Valley and much more.

Click the link to read 👇 www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/building-boo...

Protestors targeted the HSBC office in town over the weekend, seemingly in response to the company's links to Israeli-based defence firm Elbit

The Tribune piece brought back memories of doing PR and photography around the production of the Man of Steel model at the AMRC in the early 2010s. I'm sorry but not surprised that it never happened.

What on earth has happened to South Yorkshire's Angel of the North? The Steel Man's failure to launch

People have been loving this story from our archive over the weekend! It explains what happened to the statue that promised to be our version of the Angel of the North www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/what-has-hap...

Tax evasion, bribery and the mother of all family feuds “If anybody got nicked and sent to prison, Martin could probably stand it.”

This is the second instalment in our Sheffcession series, and you won’t want to miss it.

To read the full story of how Sheffield’s wealthy, secretive Hague family imploded, become a member of The Tribune today.

But there are questions for Sheffield council too.

Should they continue to give hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of business with a company whose owner has confessed, in a court of law, to large-scale fraudulent tax evasion and acting with “blatant dishonesty” towards the council themselves?

The court case is now long since over, but questions remain. Given the level of tax evasion the family admitted to, you would imagine the revelations would attract the interest of HMRC.

The family insider confirmed to us that a HMRC investigation did take place but wouldn’t be drawn on its outcome.

Martin now lives at Prospect Farm on Kirk Edge Road in High Bradfield, the seat from which the Hague family empire grew.

His home, Parkside, is just a stone’s throw from where Douglas is buried. The other side of the family weren’t told that Douglas had died and weren’t invited to the funeral.

Douglas wanted his children to stop fighting, but when they wouldn’t, he (and his wife Jean) came down firmly on the side of Martin.

In the battle of the Hague family succession, Martin was the undisputed winner. Risk taking and ruthless, Douglas saw something of himself in his youngest son.

Much of the time and energy in the case was spent not on the actual issue in question but instead on trying to smear the characters of the other side.

These include an allegation that David Hague “mutilated a dead cow with an oxyacetylene torch in order to make a fraudulent insurance claim”.

That wasn’t the only means of evading tax. Substantial sums of money were doled out to Hague family members in off the book payments.

When Martin was cross-examined about the off-the-book payments, he accepted that the total amount of cash undeclared over the years could be as much as £1 million.

A 2009 court judgement lays bare the family feud, but also lifts a lid on the family’s illegal business practices, including tax evasion via a process known as “cross-invoicing”.

Fraudulent or inflated invoices were issued between Hague family companies so as to reduce the profits for tax purposes.

A family insider told us that Martin’s purchase of the hotel was “the catalyst” for everything that has followed over the next 20 years, including six rounds of legal action and the complete estrangement of David and Dianne Hague from both their brother Martin, and their parents, Douglas and Jean.

The story begins in 2004, when Martin Hague — the youngest of the Hague siblings — bought the Hallam Tower Hotel in Fulwood for £6.65 million (plus VAT).

Martin had found the millions to buy the hotel from Hague family funds. There was just one problem. He hadn’t told any of them about it.

Given MHH’s status as a major council contractor, after our previous piece on the Hague family of Bradfield, we decided to keep looking into them.

We still had lots of questions: what, exactly, caused the initial rift? When Martin Hague mentioned “lying and deceit”, what had he been talking about?

Over the last 40 years, MHH Contracting have won contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from Sheffield council.

However, during a 2009 court case, managing director Martin Hague admitted to tax evasion on a massive scale. Should taxpayers’ money continue to go to this company?

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Tax evasion, bribery and the mother of all family feuds “If anybody got nicked and sent to prison, Martin could probably stand it.”

After our recent piece about the Hague family of Bradfield, we still had lots of questions.

What, exactly, caused the initial family rift? When Martin Hague mentioned “lying and deceit”, what was he actually talking about?

Now, thanks to court ruling and a family insider, we have some answers.

Nearly half way to 500 - wow 🤩

The support so far has been brilliant - and it shows there's real appetite for serious local journalism here 📰