Winnington Fine Wines Ltd: 'We offer a comprehensive service'
Unfortunately this service appears not to extend to buying investors' wines
Winnington Fine Wines Ltd is yet another short-lived, fly-by-night wine investment company. Formed on the 23rd January 2012 the company stayed around long enough to trouser investors' funds – apparently buying a small proportion of the wine ordered.
Winnington Fine Wines Ltd modestly called themselves 'a leading wine broker' but they were active for only a year at most before pulling the plug and disappearing from the 4th Floor, 40 Marsh Wall, Docklands, London W14. The sole director of Winnington Fine Wines Ltd was Mrs Narif Aziz born on 25th July 1972. Winnington's annual return is overdue, now accounts have been filed and the company is in the process of being struck off with the first Gazette on 21.5.13.
Winnington shared this address near Canary Wharf with two other companies – Creating Success Ltd (proposal to strike off – first Gazette on 11,6.13) and Gig UK Investments Ltd (dissolved 7.5.13). Again a Mrs Narif Aziz was the sole director but this time born on 13.1.1958. Either she is the child bride of the Mrs Aziz, who is the director of Winnington Fine Wines Ltd, or botox and other cosmetic surgery procedures have worked wonders.
What is not known at this stage is how much wine Winnington Fine Wines Ltd bought and how much their clients hoped they had bought. One couple who paid out £27,000 while dealing with a broker called Adam Brown – almost certainly not his real name – are devasted to discover that only a small fraction of their wine actually exists in their account at London City Bond. At some stage during its brief life Winnington Fine Wines Ltd did have an account at LCB but this is now closed.
Clients of Winnington, who discover that they have wine missing, should make sure they file a compolaint through ActionFraud.
Given the number of scam wine investment companies it is amazing that anyone cold called about wine investment doesn't immediately associate wine investment with ostrich eggs or emails (Nigerian 419s) purportedly from President Mobutu's widow eager to deposit at least £20 million in your bank account.
Equally I'm also amazed that any wine investment company that likes to think it is legitimate would consider cold calling as an appropriate sales tactic.
A previous post on Winnington Fine Wines Ltd and an article from The Mirror.
