Watch out for Vanguard Trading UK Ltd and 'John Gough' scam

This is the latest scam warning letter sent out by London City Bond's Vinothèque. 

Dear Customer

Further to our email warning, dated October 9th, please see below for the latest scam letter being circulated by a John Gough, who now claims to be Head of Sales for LCB.  This letter is not from LCB and we would like to remind you that we would never approach our customers to offer such a service.  We have contacted Action Fraud and would urge you to do the same.  Please telephone 0300 123 2040 or visit http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ to report the scam online.

We would encourage you to be extra vigilant, and if in any doubt about any matter relating to your account, our dedicated Customer Services team, here at LCB Vinotheque, can be contacted on 0843 659 3617 or vtcustomerservices@lcb.co.uk.

Kind regards

Lesley Batkin
Private Client Executive

Scam letter Vanguard Trading UK Ltd 

pretending to be LCB

Letter claims to be from 'John Gough, Head of Sales at London City Bond'. This is entirely false – no such person at LCB.   

The letter says 'We write to inform you that Vanguard Trading UK have been instructed as our appointed contractor'. Again an entirely false claim. The recipient of the letter is asked to contact Ms Julie Jones on 0207 859 4641. 

The message must be – steer clear of Vanguard Trading UK Ltd! 

Timely warning on investment from LCB (Vinothèque)

Timely and very useful warning from Jane Renwick, general manager of Vinothèque – the fine wine storage division of London City Bond, highlighting some potential dangers of wine investment:

 

Dear customer

Over the past few weeks it has come to our attention that numerous companies are cold calling our private customers using underhand tactics to buy or sell wines.  May we strongly suggest that you take some time to read information that is supplied by Jim Budd, to ensure that these are legitimate companies at http://investdrinks-blog.blogspot.co.uk/.

You may also wish to peruse the below points:

Investment Fraud

This information has been produced to provide hints to avoid falling victim to investment fraud. Please take a little time to read through.
 

• Out of the blue – Remember that authorised investment firms and brokers do not use cold-calling as a sales technique, so if you receive an unsolicited telephone call from a person or organisation you do not know, offering you an investment opportunity, take extra care.
   
• No thanks – You can avoid many unsolicited telephone calls by registering your phone number with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). The TPS is the official central opt out register for people who do not want to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls. This is free to do by calling 0845 070 0707 or online at www.tpsonline.org.uk
   
• Now or never – The salesman (they often call themselves ‘’Brokers’’ or ‘’Portfolio Managers’’) may put you under pressure to make a quick decision to invest – for instance ‘’this is the last available and if you don’t buy today it will be gone tomorrow’’. Don’t be forced into making rash decisions. Take your time to think it through, speak with your family, an independent financial advisor or a similar independent professional. It is probably better to lose an opportunity than to lose your money.
   
• All that glistens – The commodities offered in investment scams are often unusual – plots of land, fine wine, carbon credits, coloured diamonds, rare earth metals, or gold-mining to name but a few. Unlike quoted stocks and shares, it can be difficult to find out the underlying value of such commodities. Should you be temped by such an offer, make sure you really know the true value of what you are considering buying – don’t take the salesman’s word for it.
   
• Risk and return – The general rule with investments is that the higher the return offered, the higher the risk of losing your money. High return investments with minimal associated risk do not exist. Don’t be impressed if the salesman tells you how much money you would have made if you had bought shares in Microsoft or Google when they first came to the market – you won’t be buying these shares after all.
   
• No way out – Ask about the exit strategy – how can you realise your investment and receive your return? Will a national housing developer really want to buy your small plot of land in the middle of a field in Kent? Will a multinational microchip manufacturer really want to buy your 1kg of Gadolinium? As with any capital investment, you can only make a profit if you sell on for more than you bought in – ask yourself where the market is.
   
• A racing cert – If the commodity is such a certainty to show a profit in a relatively short timescale, ask yourself why a company would want to sell it to you. Surely they would hold on to it and keep all the profit themselves? I would.
   
• Too good to be true – If it looks too good to be true it probably is. Professional investors don’t get it right all the time and the risks to the armchair investor are greater still. Hedge funds may be able to afford losses on some of their more exotic investments, but can you?

Should you require assistance please contact a member of our Customer Services team on 0843 659 3617 or vtcustomerservices@lcb.co.uk who will be more than happy to help you in any way they can.

Kind regards

Jane Renwick

General Manager

Winchester Associates Ltd – a recently active charitable institution?

 'Winchester Associates was founded in 2006 and 

has an extensive amount of commodity trading between it's (sic) brokers'

Companies House: nature of business: market research 
and public opinion polling
Last accounts made up to 31.12.2013 (Dormant) 

'Who is?' details of Winchester Associates website: registered 13th March 2015 

Winchester Associates Ltd's contact details are:
St Clement's House, 27/28 Clement's Lane, EC4N 7AE 
Serviced offices and meeting rooms   

Winchester Associates Ltd have recently been active contacting a number of wine investors and offering very attractive prices for clients in Dubai and China. Its website trumpets that the company was founded in 2006 and has 'extensive experience'. This impression is highly suspect.

Although Winchester Associates was indeed set up on 21.8.2006, the company with a £2 share capital was dormant at least until end of 2013 – the last accounts filed are for a dormant company. Probably remained dormant until around late February/March 2015. Current director is 33-year-old Christopher James Brummitt (appointed 24.2.2015 and their website  wasn't registered until 13.3.2015. Serviced office address. Despite this history website gives impression that Winchester Associates Ltd has been active in the fine wine trade and commodity trading since 2006.   

AC was recently contacted by Winchester Associates Ltd who made a very generous offer for their portfolio of wines. This offer included £1434 for a case of 2005 Lynch Bages, which can be purchased elsewhere in the UK for £928, £10,894 for 1996 Lafite (case) and most generously £689 for a case of 2012 Château d'Yquem. Doubtless Winchester Associates priced the Yquem on its rarity value as the château did not release any wine under its name in 2012 as the conditions during the vintage were so atrocious for making sweet wine. Distributing such largesse makes me wonder whether Winchester Associates Ltd is a registered charity.

AC was told that Winchester Associates Ltd don't normally trade wines and instead deal in other commodities for corporate customers (oil and gas, diamonds, stones, gold etc). They claim to have a specific customer referred to as an "International Hotel Chain" with office is Dubai and Shanghai who they help source wines for from UK stockists. They stated that they had POs from them and could offer Live-X +25%.   

Winchester Associates Ltd's web pages on energy, metals and gold bear considerable similarity with the pages on

-->www.macquarie.com and --> http://commodityhq.com/commodity/precious-metals/gold while the fine wine section has similarities with an established wine merchant.

Here as an example is Energy:

'Winchester Associates  provides products and solutions to a broad customer base across the energy sector. Traded energy products include natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), natural gas liquids (NGLs), power, crude oil, coal and other refined products.

In addition, the division is active across all physical energy products: natural gas, power, LNG, oil, NGLs and coal. Energy Markets also provides storage and transportation services, and commodities based financing.'

 

I have to admire Christopher Brummitt's energy as the sole director of a £2 company on having established 'a broad customer base across the energy sector' in just five months since his appointment in February 2015. 

However, despite this I will steer clear of Winchester Associates Ltd and their amazingly generous wine offers – wine deals in Dubai and Shanghai can go sour....   

••

An aside 

I am indebted to anon for this research. On 2nd June 2005 The Hertfordshire and Essex Observer reported that a Chris Brummitt – 22 years old and living at the Spinney was jailed for three months for assaulting two police officers, while drunk. Read the story here. This may well be another Chris Brummitt and an entire coincidence. However, Christopher Brummitt (director of Winchester Associates Ltd) does come from Hertfordshire and as he was born on 13th June 1982, he would have been 22 when he was sentenced.  

Update: 27th August 2015  
investdrinks understands that Winchester Associates Ltd applied to EHD and London City Bond to open a trading account at these bonded warehouses. Both companies declined to do business with Winchester Associates Ltd.   

 

 

 

 

Christopher Brummitt holds 1 appointments at 1 active companies, has resigned from 0 companies and held 0 appointments at 0 dissolved companies. Christopher began their first appointment at the age of 32. Their longest current appointment spans 0 years and 5 months at WINCHESTER ASSOCIATES LIMITED.

Read more at: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/919529152

London City Bond (LCB) issue warning on Portcliffe Capital Ltd

 'Portcliffe Capital is an active asset manager'

active only since company changed name on 10th December

'long term performance responsibily' Grade 1 rubbish

Filings with Companies House – Daniel White appointed 9.12.2014, 
company named changed on 10.12.2014
 

Below is a letter recently emailed by LCB Vinotheque to their customers warning about a George Harris (doubtless not his real name) and Portcliffe Capital Ltd. Harris is claiming to work for LCB and Portcliffe Capital Ltd is just another scam company claiming to be able to sell wine for investors. Instead once the wine is transferred they make the wine disappear leaving the all too trusting investor empty-handed.

Other companies playing this popular scam include Lewis Samuels' Samuels & Parker Ltd and Leon Brown's Bordeaux Exchange Ltd. Both companies target ex-clients of bust European Fine Wines Ltd.       

'Dear Customer

I wish to update you further regarding our recent communications concerning attempted scams being experienced by some of our customers.

We have recently received reports that some customers have been contacted, by telephone, from an individual claiming to be a George Harris who works for LCB, recommending they sell their wines through a company called Portcliffe Capital.  They claim the contact at Portcliffe Capital to be Darren Reid, who can be contacted on 0203 633 3174. Please be aware that LCB are not making these calls and would never approach our customers to offer to buy wine or act as an agent in such matters.

Furthermore, another wine investment company to avoid - DSL Fine Wines Ltd, based in Bromley, Kent, and the Director is Daniel Southey.  We wish to confirm that we have not, and will not, have any dealings with them.  For more information please visit Jim Budd's blog http://investdrinks-blog.blogspot.co.uk.
Again, we would encourage you to be extra vigilant, and if in doubt about any matter relating to your account, our dedicated Customer Services team, here at LCB Vinotheque, can be contacted on 0843 659 3617 or vtcustomerservices@lcb.co.uk.

Regards

David Hogg
Sales Director'

Portcliffe Capital Ltd has a share capital of all of £1. The sole director is Daniel White (DOB: 1975) of 1 Kingsley Road, Croydon CR0 3NP.

1 Kingsley Road Croydon England CR0 3NP

Read more at: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/919333462

1 Kingsley Road Croydon England CR0 3NP

Read more at: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/919333462

Below the only part of Portcliffe Capital's website that you need to read:

Disclaimer:

Portcliffe Group is a limited Company. Registered in England and Wales Company no (8327546). Trading financial products entails a considerable risk factor and is therefore not suitable for every investor. You should carefully consider your financial situation and understand the risk (seeking independent advice if necessary) prior to making any investment. Portcliffe Group is not Authorised or Regulated by the FCA.*

 *FCA: Financial Services Authority

 

 
 

Bonds against the Scammers

Representatives from EHD and London City Bond (LCB) met with me on Tuesday 21^st April in Central London to discuss launching a new initiative – Bonds against the Scammers. In particular they will now be sharing information with each other and investdrinks about scam wine investment companies. 

Although in competition with each other, EHD and LCB are committed to making life difficult for wine investment scammers. This is certainly business that they do not want.

It is not wanted because wine should be enjoyable and they do not want to see their customers being ripped off. It is also not wanted because when things go wrong and the scam company goes bust or disappears, then it is usually the bonded warehouse that is left to pick up the pieces. Left to deal with understandably upset and irate investors, who may often have sunk a significant proportion of their life savings into wine they either doesn’t exist or for which they have been charged far too much.

Although the bonded warehouses are not in any way part of these scams, it is not surprising that some defrauded investors unfortunately assume that the bonded warehouses are somehow part of the scam.

HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) and the money laundering regulations require bonded warehouses to carry out due diligence on customers wishing to open accounts. It is clear that these regulations put the emphasis on those wanting to open accounts to prove that they are legitimate.

LCB and EHD already do refuse to open accounts for companies they consider dubious as well as closing or freezing accounts of companies or individuals whose accounts arouse suspicion.

Often scammers refused an account at one bonded warehouse will apply to another bonded warehouse in the hope of slipping through. EHD and LCB agreeing to share information on companies and individuals refused an account or who arouse suspicion will make life more difficult for the scammers.

The bonds will also exchange information on their due diligence procedures and see how far these can be coordinated.  

We hope that other bonds especially other third party warehouses like Octavian will join in this initiative. 

Watch out! Former EFW customers targeted by variety of scams

The former offices of European Fine Wines Ltd in Bromley

Former clients of EFW/European Fine Wines Ltd are being targeted by a variety of scamsters – all dedicated to thinning clients wallets even further. Most overpaid for the wines they bought from EFW. It is very clear that client lists including not just contact information but also details of the wines they purchased have been passed around – sold on etc.

Over-high valuations and Chinese sales   

Some like Lewis Samuels of Samuels & Parker Ltd are making remarkably high offers on portfolios. Samuels, based in Downham and Dubai, tend to claim that he has a Chinese buyer for these wines – unfortunately the Chinese buyer has a tendency to be rather fickle and change their mind. More recently he has also found a UK buyer to pay around £72,000 for a portfolio valued by another, long established broker at £55,000.  

London City Bond – fake employees 

Other scamsters have pretended to be employees of London City Bond claiming to have located wine that they say they can sell for the client. Of course an advance fee is required to facilitate this sale. Needless to say – see the letter from David Hogg from London City Bond below – this is a lie. Like the famous Nigerian 419s this is looks to be advanced fee fraud.     

Dear Customer 

I am writing to you as the former storage provider for European Fine Wines.

As you will be aware European Fine Wines have now been placed into Liquidation and we are currently working with the appointed Liquidator.

However, it has been brought to our attention that some customers have received telephone calls and letters (see below) from unknown individuals, claiming to be from London City Bond (LCB) and offering to buy their wines or in exchange for a fee, secure your stocks from the Liquidator.

These people do not work for LCB and we never cold call any customers offering such services.

Should you receive any such calls, we would urge you not to accept any offer under any circumstances.

If you are able to ascertain any details about the caller, number used etc we would be grateful for this information in order that we can pass this on to the Police.

Please feel free to contact our Customer Services team on 0843 659 3617 or at vtcustomerservices@lcb.co.uk for any further assistance.

Many thanks.

Regards
David Hogg

Sales Director

Text of letter above
12th Feb 2015

Dear Mrs

We write to confirm that we have located fine wine assets under your name which have been within our bonded warehouse. The storage for your assets are now due for renewal and so can you please inform us how you wish to proceed. We can offer you an option to sell your case of wine and we have been approached by an interested buyer who would like to present a formal offer of £7,228.91.

If you are happy to accept this offer of sale, a fee of £722.89 will be due to cover fees for the sale of which we will complete on your behalf.

Should you have any further queries, please contact us on 0207 859 4313.

Kind regards

James Reynolds
Storage Management


Abbott Fielding/Grant Thornton – fake employees
This is a variant of the fake employees at London City Bond. This time the scamsters claim falsely to be employees the liquidators and for a fee can release clients' wines. Again this looks like advanced fee fraud. 

Message from Nedim Ailyan of Abbott Fielding Limited:
    

'Evolution of Conmen

I am writing to you to see whether you could give assistance, as we have noticed over the last week or so a worrying development in the evolution of conmen in relation to commodity fraud and in particularly wine fraud.

As you are aware I am the Liquidator of in excess of a dozen wine frauds, the vast majority have been dealt with by the Police.  We have had disturbing calls from creditors over the last 3 or 4 days, where creditors have been contacted by individuals purporting to be from Abbott Fielding and requesting they pay across a sum of money to release their wine.

I have contacted other insolvency practitioners and established that Grant Thornton have also been the victim where third parties have contacted creditors of companies they are dealing with alleging they are from Grant Thornton and requesting payment of small sums of money to release their goods.

We have contacted the relevant authorities to advise this and are currently collecting the names and phone numbers which will be forwarded on to the Police.

Nedim Ailyan

Abbott Fielding Limited

Twelve-By-Seventy-Five Ltd: not for me thanks!

This is yet another recently formed wine investment company: Twelve-By-Seventy-Five Ltd was set up on 24th January 2014. Its two present directors – 27-year-old Sultan Mahmood Rashid and 29-year-old Riccardo Tullio De'nardis – were appointed on 8th April 2014.  

 

'We are experienced wine merchants & brokers'

'We have firmly established contacts with French négociants'

For a company formed in January 2014 they have gained experience and contacts with remarkable speed...  
 

'Fine wine is an excellent alternative investments.

'The fine wine is booming picking the right wines 

gives significant opportunities for incredible tax-free returns.' 

Fine wine, especially Bordeaux, is not booming as prices have been dropping since 2011. 

Incorrect claims of fine wine investment is free from capital gains tax.

No mention of inheritance tax  

 'Its official Classification (Appellation d'Controlee) 

dates back to 1855 at Napoleon 3rd's request.'

Twelve-By-Seventy-Five Ltd confuse Appellation Contrôlée (started in 1936) with the 1855 classification. 

'We store our wine in London City Bond's (LCB) 

bonded warehouse: Vinothèque in Barking' 

Rather alarming – LCB's Vinothèque is in Burton-on-Trent around 150 miles north-west of Barking! 

 How much are the storage charges? Our strong relationship 

with London City Bond (LCB) gives us 

highly competitive storage rates with two options: 

'highly competitive rates'!

Sultan Mahmood Rashid and Riccardo Tullio De'nardis claim a 'strong relationship with London City Bond' but Twelve-By-Seventy-Five Ltd has no company account at LCB. The 'highly competitive storage rates' claimed by Twelve-By-Seventy-Five are LCB's standard rates from private customers:

LCB's standard charges for private account holders 

The last thing the fine wine trade needs is another 'wine investment' company making false claims. I'll certainly avoid Sultan Mahmood Rashid and Riccardo Tullio De'nardis new Twelve-By-Seventy-Five Ltd, which I hope will be both short-lived and unsuccessful.  

Update:

There is now an fairly extensive thread of comments below on this post, which you are recommended to read.   

 

London City Bond: collapsed roof@Purfleet

As has been reported elsewhere the roof at LCB warehouse at Purfleet collapsed on Thursday evening. It is believed that snow was a contributory factor. Fortunately the collapse happened at 4.45pm  30 minutes after the facility had closed and staff had gobne home, so no one was injured. It is highly probable that the bad weather saved lives here as around Christmas time staff frequently work overtime but the decision was taken to close the warehouse on time (4.15) that day due to the bad weather and poor road conditions, otherwise it is likely that staff would have been working overtime there when the roof collapsed. 

Only merchants store at Purfleet, so private reserves are not affected. However, of the 100,000 cases stored there it is estimated that certainly 70% of the stock has been lost and possibly as much as 80-90%. This is through bottles smashed and then subsequent weather damage. Companies using Purfleet tend to be the small to medium players and, of course, a sudden loss especially at Christmas time can have very serious implications for businesses.

Companies known to store at Purfleet include High Spirits, Patriache, HG Wines (the wine company of the St Johns group) and Peter Watts.