A COUPLE who recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary are to become the new focus of opposition to the extradition laws that forced three NatWest bankers to face trial in America.

Stanley and Beatrice Tollman, friends of the Thatchers and guests of the Reagans at the White House, have spoken for the first time about their fight against fast-track extradition to the United States, where they face allegations surrounding a large fraud involving hotels, debts and taxes.

The Tollmans accuse the US of exploiting the new treaty — which had been promoted as an antiterrorism measure — to get them into a New York courtroom.

One of their sons has already been jailed in the US and a nephew is stranded in Canada as prosecutors doggedly pursue the family.

Next week the Administrative Court in London will hold a procedural hearing on the case against the Tollmans, who are both in their seventies.

The United States had originally applied to have the couple extradited from Britain under long-standing treaty arrangements which required a prima facie case to be proven.

Prosecutors withdrew that request, then swiftly reintroduced it under the new legislation, which allows extradition to the US if someone is reasonably suspected of a crime. This is the first case where America has behaved this way.

The Tollmans claim that the switch of extradition regimes is an abuse of process.

Their story highlights the sweeping powers granted by Parliament for US prosecutors to pluck suspects from Britain without producing evidence proving that they appear to have committed a crime.

Defending the agreement in the Commons, Tony Blair described it as “post-11 September”, but only a handful of more than 40 cases involve alleged terrorism.

This week, the Tollmans sat in the garden of their Dorset spa on a glorious English summer afternoon looking like any devoted couple ready to enjoy retirement.

But according to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, they are fugitives from justice in an $85 million (£45 million) case involving fraud, tax evasion and money-laundering. Mr Tollman told The Times: “I’m not a person who runs away from a fight. I’ve never run away from a fight in my life, but everything here was stacked against me.”

Theirs is a tale of spectacular hotels on three continents, sumptuous homes from Park Avenue to Eaton Square and a walk-on role for the Leeds United chairman Ken Bates.

After the Tollmans came to Britain from South Africa in the 1970s, Mr Tollman went into business with Mr Bates in the coach company Trafalgar Tours, while Mrs Tollman bought their first American home in Florida.

In the early 1980s, Mr Bates left Trafalgar Tours to run Chelsea Football Club full-time and Mr Tollman set up a business with the US hotelier Monty Hundley, which bought Days Inn motels.

In 1996 Mr Tollman, who claims to have been a largely passive investor, learned that Mr Hundley had failed to file US tax returns for 20 years. A criminal investigation began.

In 2002 a grand jury returned a 33-count indictment against Mr Tollman, Mr Hundley and three associates.

Mr Tollman and Mr Hundley were accused of conspiring to get $50 million debt to banks cleared by setting up sham companies to buy the debts at a tenth of their value.

They claimed to have no relationship with these buyers. But documents for one company, Paternoster, had been signed, unwittingly, by Francis Raeymaekers, Mr Tollman’s former son-in-law.

A share subscription and certificate suggested that the other company may have been owned by Mr Bates, but both documents were unsigned and he has, on oath, flatly denied any involvement.

Mr Tollman is said to have hidden $35 million from the US taxman in secret Guernsey bank accounts.

Mr Tollman stayed in London during the initial New York hearing of his fraud case because no bail deal had been negotiated.

The family believes that prosecutors, who immediately branded Mr Tollman a “fugitive”, zealously pursued them from that moment.

Their son Brett, 42, who lived in Manhattan, was arrested after tax charges were secretly filed. A record $25 million bail was described by his lawyer as a “ransom”. In a plea bargain, he agreed to serve 33 months in prison for tax evasion. A tax complaint was then laid against Mrs Tollman.

Mr Tollman says that the “hidden” Guernsey bank accounts was declared in every US tax return.

Some of the US case appears absurd: prosecutors accuse Mrs Tollman of using the “phoney names” Toni and Vicki for family accounts; they are her daughters’ names.

Meanwhile, Mr Tollman’s American business partner Mr Hundley was jailed for eight years for conspiracy, bank fraud and personal tax evasion.

Mr Tollman doubts that the Americans will give up. US prosecutors, he says, seem to regard him as a prize as great as the world’s largest diamond.

THE TOLLMAN EMPIRE

RED CARNATION HOTEL GROUP

London 41; Milestone; Chesterfield Mayfair; Montague on the Gardens; Rubens at the Palace; Egerton House

Evershot, Dorset: Summer Lodge

Geneva Hotel d’Angleterre

Florida: Chesterfield Palm Beach

South Africa Bushmans Kloof wilderness reserve

Cape Town 12 Apostles

TRAVEL CORPORATION BUSINESS

Coach trips Trafalgar Tours; Insight Vacations; Contiki Holidays; AAT Kings; Grand European

Sightseeing tours Evan Evans; AAT Kings; Aussie Adventure Holidays

Foreign independent traveller Creative Holidays; New Horizon Holidays; Swain Travel; African Travel; Lion World

HOMES

Apartments Palm Beach, Florida; Eaton Square, London; Geneva, Switzerland; the whole 11th floor of a Park Avenue block, New York

Farm New Preston, Connecticut

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