Gomba Holdings, a property company owned by Ugandan Asian businessman Abdul Shamji and his family, which claimed to have interests in the Garrick and Duchess theatres as well as Wembley Stadium, bought the theatre in the mid-1980s in the hope of redeveloping the Puddle Dock site. Bernard Miles' tenure as honorary artistic advisor was abruptly terminated and the theatre's importance declined. In 1989 Abdul Shamji was sentenced to 15-months in prison over his involvement in the Johnson Matthey bank collapse. Josephine Wilson died in 1990 and Bernard (by then Lord) Miles died in 1991, financially destitute.