A grandfather who lost both arms in a work accident has told of his misery after he wasted the seven-figure payout on a ‘great’ investment opportunity.

Robert Cooke, 65, put £900k into a firm that was developing housing, under the trusted advice of the well-known property developer Richard Hayward.

Almost 20 years on, Mr Cooke is now at risk of losing his home and has suffered three strokes in recent years, which he attributes to the stress of his financial problems.

The ex-semi pro footballer admitted he had known little about business or property but put his faith in Mr Hayward, the mastermind behind several major developments in South Wales.

It came after the double amputee lost his limbs after installing equipment at the Swansea North sub station in 1999.

Then aged 40, Mr Cooke, from Swansea, was blasted by a 33,000 volt explosion.

His employer Hyder Utilities – the now defunct parent company of Swalec – pleaded guilty at Swansea Crown Court of failing to ensure there were sufficient danger notices and was fined £50,000.

Mr Cooke recalled fire extinguishers had attempted to pull him out as he suffered ‘full-depth’ burns to almost a quarter of his body and spent a few days in a coma at Morriston hospital.

Robert Cooke, 65 (pictured), put £900k into a firm that was developing housing, under the trusted advice of the well-known property developer Richard Hayward

The double amputee lost his limbs after installing equipment at the Swansea North sub station in 1999

He said he could not believe his eyes on waking up as he was told: ‘You’ve been in an accident and we need to take your arms off otherwise you are going to die.’

His left arm was subsequently amputated at the shoulder and right above the elbow, with medics reporting at the time only three per cent of people survived such accidents.

Mr Cooke later received a settlement payment from Hyder worth around £1.8million.

This helped bear significant costs such as home adaptations for his disability as well as the breakdown of his marriage – though Mr Cooke reported being left with more than £1m.

He was determined to defeat the odds and fought back to manage Pontardawe and other football screens, following his successful time playing as a sweeper for the top-tier Welsh football club, managing it and others while working as a protection fitter.

But it was in 2007 that Mr Cooke made his damning investment in a firm developing housing at the site of the former Stelco Hardy steel piping factory in Blaenrhondda, Rhondda Cyon Taf.

He put £800,000 into the company which owned the Blaenrhondda land, Phoneray Ltd, directed by Mr Hayward.

Some £500,000 of that was a loan to the firm while the other £300,000 brought Mr Cooke a shareholding.

Mr Cooke put £800,000 into the company which owned the Blaenrhondda land, Phoneray Ltd, directed by Mr Hayward (pictured in 2006 at Salubrious Place development in Swansea)

Mr Hayward stated ‘all investment can go wrong’ and blamed the plight of Mr Cooke on his going bankrupt in late 2009 and then losing the shareholding. Pictured: Mr Hayward at a London to Dakar rally event

Speaking to WalesOnline, Mr Hayward stated ‘all investment can go wrong’ and blamed the plight of Mr Cooke on his going bankrupt in late 2009 and then losing the shareholding.

But even before his bankruptcy – which stemmed from the failure of a pub he co-owned – the investments he had made with Mr Hayward were already in a poor state.

The former footballer had met the property mogul in the mid-2000s after he bought a pub in Swansea’s Wind Street, and got to know him as he was often in the area due to his involvement in the Salubrious Place development.

Mr Cooke described feeling as though he had come across the ‘real deal’ given Mr Hayward’s Rolex watches and stories of his French vineyard.

But he claimed he began to have concerns as early as 2008, saying ‘after the first year I wanted my money back’.

Mr Cooke said he was in disbelief at learning his money was gone as he was told to sit down before being informed ‘investments go up and down’ as Mr Hayward looked ahead with ‘no emotion’.

A report commissioned by Mr Cooke in 2010 from consultants PWC read: ‘Just looking through the correspondence from [Mr Hayward’s accountant] there is a clear effort to paint the position as black as possible to imply that your investments have little or no value. 

‘Whilst this may well be the case the best route forward is to find out what can or cannot be recovered.’

Mr Cooke said he was in disbelief at learning his money was gone as he was told to sit down before being informed ‘investments go up and down’

Mr Cooke learned to navigate a new reality even down to using his phone’s touch screen with his nose

Mr Hayward denied the bleakness of the situation was overstated. He said: ‘The company [Phoneray] at that stage was underwater because this was the period after the crash of the property world.

‘Mr Cooke’s £500,000 [loan] didn’t exist, in essence, then.

‘In 2007-8 property was booming and we were involved in numerous deals.

‘I might well have said property is a good investment but all investment can go wrong. The great recession of 2010 to 2015 caused catastrophe in the property world and we were lucky to come out in 2016.’

The businessman claimed Mr Cooke ‘would still be sitting with us and involved in Phoneray’ had he not lost his shareholding due to bankruptcy. 

‘I have explained why zero return was provided to Mr Cooke,’ he said. 

‘Interest was to be paid as and when the money was available. I paid all the costs of the company and still pay them to this day.’

Mr Cooke accepted he made ‘a pig’s ear’ of his pub as a £142,938 debt to an asset finance firm led to his bankruptcy in late 2009.

The double amputee, who suffers from lymphoedema – a chronic swelling condition – and is mostly housebound, said he wishes could do more to support his now-adult daughters and his four grandchildren

But he stressed his investments with Mr Hayward had already failed disastrously by that point. 

Shortly before the bankruptcy Mr Hayward’s accountant had written a letter stating that Mr Cooke’s £500,000 loan to Phoneray had been used to repay bank borrowings but that the business was now loss-making with net liabilities of £404,527.

The double amputee, who suffers from lymphoedema – a chronic swelling condition – and is mostly housebound, said he wished he could do more to support his now-adult daughters and his four grandchildren but instead faced the prospect of losing what has been his home for two decades as the £227,000 mortgage comes due this year. 

‘There’s not a day I don’t think about what I’ve lost because there are lots of things I can’t do,’ said Mr Cooke. ‘I feel let down.’

In 2012 Mr Hayward was ordered to pay £32,000 after admitting a health and safety crime over a building at Penygraig industrial estate. 

Between 2005 and 2008 three companies had occupied the site while structural work was taking place. 

Pontypridd Magistrates’ Court heard the builders and tenants were at risk of exposure to asbestos. 

‘For Mr Hayward not to inform relevant persons that asbestos was present demonstrated a major failing in his management procedures at that time,’ the Health and Safety Executive said at the time.

Other breaches include one of his companies failing to carry out a risk assessment or providing safety equipment for working on the roof.

Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard a man working on the development had fallen eight feet and suffered a broken leg after a beam gave way.

Tom Walker, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, told the court that Mr Hayward had a previous record of failings relating to working from a height.

Addressing the health and safety filings, Mr Hayward said: ‘I’m not on site. I do not see those things. It’s not my fault. I am blamed for them because I’m the head of the business.’