A MAN accused of murdering his wife at their French chateau had set up a major business that cost Kirklees Council thousands of pounds.

And a man who worked for 55-year-old Robert Hall for five years described him as a charismatic chancer who loved his kids.

Hall is charged with murdering his wife, Joanne, burning her body and then allegedly entombing her remains in cement at their chateau in Rennes, Brittany.

According to reports, Hall had been battling bureaucrats and bankers to create a £2.5m leisure complex near Rennes and wanted to build an 18-hole golf course.

It is understood that he had fled his home in Dunford Road, Holmfirth, in the mid-1990s to escape massive debts and people constantly chasing him for unpaid bills.

In 1981 he set up Nobel Kitchens in Ravensthorpe which went into receivership two years later after running into financial problems.

Kirklees Council had put £68,000 into the business when it was set up in a bid to create jobs.

Hall had been married previously and had a daughter by that marriage.

Joanne was his second wife and the couple have three children – Christopher 21, Claire, 20 and Anna who is in her late teens.

Milnsbridge man Alan Tyndall said 6ft-tall Hall was involved with Honley company Autobahn Motors in the late 1970s and early 1980s which imported BMW cars from overseas – and was running the kitchen business at the same time.

Mr Tyndall’s wife became the Halls’ housekeeper and childminder and Mr Tyndall was employed as a security guard and also did labouring work.

Mr Tyndall – who believes that Joanne’s father used to have a textile firm in Bradford – revealed that Hall was involved with an industrial estate at Deepcar near Stocksbridge.

Mr Tyndall, 54 – a father-of-four and grandad-of-six – said: “I don’t know where his money came from. I just thought he was a successful businessman. Eventually he left the Holme Valley because people were after him for money.

“He was a very charismatic person and certainly was a loving father. Joanne was very attractive, approachable and chatty but she seemed, in my opinion, to be controlled by him and she went along with what he said.

“It’s the kids I feel sorry for now.’’

Mr Tyndall added: “I’m quite astute and realised that Hall was not quite right in terms of sharp practice. He would brag about things and was very friendly and believable, but I could not envisage him doing the sort of thing he is accused of now.

“He always paid me cash in hand and paid my wife, but I knew he wasn’t paying others.’’

He added: “When I first met him he lived at Scholes where we lived at the time and only later moved into the large detached house on Dunford Road.

“His kids certainly loved living there. It had a large garden and a pond.’’

Mr Tyndall revealed that Mr Hall’s name is Iain Robert Hall even though he is now know as Robert Hall.

He said Hall asked him to be a security guard at the industrial estate at Deepcar – mainly at night – and wrongly assumed at the time that he owned it.

“I thought he owned the whole industrial estate, but I think he just leased it,’’ he said.

“He had one unit that he had a real interest in and told me to make sure this unit was extra secure.

“It was something to do with concrete and others said he was trying to formulate a new type of concrete.

“There was another unit on the site that was full of old car parts for BMWs, Jaguars and Ferraris. In another unit there were two stripped down E-Type Jaguars.’’

Hall courted controversy for the final time before disappearing from the Holme Valley when he rented a premises in Holmfirth as a Santa’s Grotto in December, 1993 – but was locked out after breaching the agreement by setting up a small market selling gifts.

Mr Tyndall, who was security guard in the shop, said: “It started as a grotto and ended up selling anything – just like a mini market.’’

Another former employee of Robert Hall simply described him as “a rogue’’.

Mrs Linda Wood, of Longwood, spent two years working with Hall at his car business, Autobahn Motors, in Honley.

Hall used to import prestige cars from Europe, notably BMWs, and convert them to right-hand drive.

But he was taken to court at one point for trying to sell cars which he did not own.

He also had business interests in a former colliery site in Dinnington, South Yorkshire. Mrs Wood said: “He obtained a lot of money from the coal authorities to develop that site.

“He was a bit of a rogue but very smooth-talking. He could sell snow to the Eskimos.

“He lived in Holmfirth and kept the downstairs rooms empty so that if people came looking for him it would appear no-one lived at the house.

“I remember him meeting his wife-to-be Joanne, even though he was still married at the time. They married at Huddersfield Register Office in the 1980s.

“I’m shocked at the reports of what has happened in France but, to be honest, I’m not surprised.’’