A TOP barrister who owns a hotel in Teignmouth is at the centre of a legal dispute involving her recently bought £1.5 million seaside business.

Injunctions specialist Shirley Bothroyd – who invested her life savings in The Bay in Powderham Crescent – attended a court hearing in Exeter last week as part of a fraud inquiry.

She had spent £4,000 on tickets to take five people on a new year winter holiday to the Caribbean to thank them for helping her establish the venture.

But she was in court last week seeking to have two names removed from the Virgin Airline tickets after finding irregularities in the hotel's accounts.