Cliff Stanford

Cliff Stanford, an accountant from Southend-on-Sea, was a co-founder of Demon Internet, the first Internet Service Provider in the United Kingdom for individual subscribers. Stanford had spotted what he thought was a real business opportunity to profit from the incipient demand for access to the Internet and started Demon with a capital of just £20,000.

Following the sale of Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom in 1998 for (UKP) £66M, he founded Redbus Investments, a venture capital firm involved in film production and a variety of other ventures. Redbus Investments provided seed capital for a number of investments including Redbus Interhouse. After a boardroom fall-out at Redbus Interhouse, he resigned in June 2002.

In September 2005 he was convicted of spying on John Porter, the ex-chairman of Redbus Interhouse, specifically hacking into his e-mail account. After pleading guilty, he was given a suspended sentence, ordered to pay a fine of £20,000, and in a later hearing was denied leave to appeal.

Family

Cliff Stanford has one son, Tony Stanford and is currently in a relationship with Sylvia Spruck Wrigley and stepfather to Connor Wrigley.

Chess

Stanford is a chess enthusiast who had sponsored a REDBUS knockout Grandmaster chess event each Easter in Southend, commencing in 1999.Following the death of his uncle, Jack Speigel, who had for many years organised the entire annual Southend Easter chess...
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