Seale Wines Ltd: message from Official Receiver

'I can confirm that on 23 November 2011 a winding up Order was made against Seale Wines Ltd (“the company”) on the petition of the Secretary of State, on public interest grounds.  On the making of the winding up Order the Official Receiver was appointed as liquidator of the company.   On the making of a winding up order the Official Receiver has a duty to investigate the cause(s) of failure and generally, the promotion, formation, business, dealings and affairs of the company, pursuant to section 132 of the Insolvency Act 1986.  As liquidator of the company the Official Receiver has a duty to realise any assets or property of the company for the benefit of its creditors.  Furthermore, in the event of any misconduct having taken place in the company the Official Receiver has the power to apply to court for the disqualification of anyone that may have acted as a director of the company, pursuant to section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

Anyone that is owed money by the company should send me an email with the following information:

Your full name;

You full postal address;

Details of much you are owed;

Details of your what your purchase/investment was for;

Any other information you feel may be of assistance.

Once I have your details you will be added to the list of creditors in the liquidation proceedings and as such you will be sent a copy of the Official Receiver’s Report to Creditors within the next 8 weeks, by which time I hope to have gathered some more information and also interviewed Mr Seale.

Kind regards

Matthew Stone

Senior Examiner

The Official Receiver's Office | Public Interest Unit

21 Bloomsbury Street | London | WC1B 3SS

DX 120875 Bloomsbury 6

T: +44 (0)20 7637 6417 | F: +44 (0)20 7637 6390

E: matthew.stone@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk | www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency'

Seale Wines Ltd – a reminder

A reminder to clients of Seale Wines Ltd that I'm happy to pass their details onto the section in the Metropolitan Police who are investigating this company. You can be assured that your personal details will not be published.  

BBC London Inside Out – wine investment scams

This is now on the BBC iplayer.

I'm delighted to see fraudulent and dubious wine investment companies under the media spotlight and I thought the report was well done. However, my suggestion that the police are not doing enough needs clarification.  

The programme said I thought the 'police were not doing enough'. They didn't use a direct quote and while this is fair comment overall I did say that I was pleased to see current investigations by The Met, City of London police and the investigations by Hertfordshire police.

It was interesting that the anonymous interviewee claimed that Kai Seale was only the front man for Seale Wines Ltd and that it was actually run by someone else. If this is correct who was actually running the company and how many other companies does this shadowy person run?

**

Following the Inside Out programme I have been contacted by Jeremy Marshall of Irwin Mitchell (details here):

'I am a litigation partner in Irwin Mitchell.  If you have not had any lawyers contacting you already, it is likely that you will do so to suggest that you may want to let the victims know that a bit of collective redress may be possible.  Two immediate issues arise - firstly, there may well be a cause of action against the director as well as against the company and, secondly, there may be issues to confront re a stay of civil proceedings pending criminal.  It is possible to seek judgments against both potential targets, bankrupt/liquidate them and ask office holders to investigate their affairs.  It should also be possible at a relatively early stage to get an order against defendants to disclose assets.  Depending on those assets, a third party funder may support a claim.  I would suggest a representative claim (where all claimants have to have the same interest).  There is also the possibility of a compensation order in future criminal proceedings.

If anyone wants to email me (Jeremy Marshall ) I would happily talk to people.'

*

I'm very happy to pass on Jeremy Marshall's message for information. Obviously anyone considering this legal avenue will want to decide for themselves whether this will be to their advantage or not.  

 

Kai Seale - Seale Wines Ltd – arrest made + BBC programme

Early this morning the Metropolitan police arrested Kai Seale, the sole director of Seale Wines Ltd, as part of their investigation into the company. He was interviewed and bailed pending further enquiries. 

BBC London Inside Out's edition on Monday 7th February 7.30pm will feature dubious wine investment companies. Inside Out have spent six months investigating such schemes and they will be the first feature on Monday's programme, which will be screened in the London area.  Seale Wines Ltd are one of the companies covered. Apparently Sky viewers can pick up the regional variations. From Tuesday the programme will be available on thr BBC iplayer.    

 

Seale Wines: message from the Met

I understand that the Metropolitan Police are investigating Seale Wines Ltd. They would welcome details from any clients of Seale Wines Ltd. In the first instance the investigating team would like to know from clients the date of any transactions and how much money they paid.  

I'm happy for any clients of Seale Wines Ltd to contact me and I will forward your emails to the Met. You can be assured that I will not publish them. My email is budmac@btinternet .com

Seale Wines and Château Lafite 2008

I recently received the following message from KA explaining that they had been contacted by Seale Wines Ltd.     

‘Recently I was contacted out of the blue by a company called Seale Wines about investing in some Château Lafite Rothschild 2008 (en primeur) and promising me, well the world. I took all this with a pinch of salt but was already interested so I agreed to give it a go.

Before finalising any of the agreements and signing anything I undertook to do a bit more in-depth research on the wine, the company and the area of wine investment. I couldn't find a whole lot to indicate either way whether the company was good, bad or indifferent. Not a lot to that, I thought, they're a small business and it's a niche area.

Then as I started to look at the area as a whole I found your site, which I found very informative and reassuring. The company in question didn't appear in your list of known dubious operators and as a company they seemed to check out. It wasn't until I read your piece about the instant offices that I noticed one of the addresses you listed is exactly the address Seale Wines are using on some paperwork they sent to me. So, now better informed as a result of reading your site I'm certainly not going to complete the transaction and I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for providing this information.’

Seale Wines Ltd

The company was founded on 26^th September 2006. Its registered office is Suite 165, 456-458 The Strand, London WC2R 0DZ. This is an accommodation address and Suite 165 is likely to be the number of their mailbox. The previous registered office was at 55 Station Approach, Hayes, Bromley, Kent BR2 7EB, so it may be that the company is another of a number of wine investment companies that are based around the Bromley area.  

The company may have been dormant until at least September 2007 as dormant accounts up to 30.9.2007 were filed on 23.9.2008 at Companies House. The latest accounts (total exemption small) made up to 30.9.08 were filed 

KA was offered the opportunity to buy 2008 Lafite en primeur at £5750. This is a remarkably keen price as a quick check on wine-searcher shows that the cheapest UK price shown there is £7200 from London based DAFT Investments. Slurp.co.uk have it for £7500, while Fine & Rare Wines list it for £7950 a case. The 2008 Lafite is unlikely to be shipped to the UK before the first half of 2011.

Seale Wines Ltd’s Terms & Conditions appear to contravene the Distance Selling Regulations over cancellation rights:

‘Cancellation:  You may cancel your order at any time and for any reason within seven working days of signing the Wine Reservation Form.  Your payment will be returned in full.’

The Distance Selling Regulations allow the buyer to cancel at anytime up to  seven working days from the day after the customer receives the goods not from the time of signing the form. In the case of buying wine as an investment that is already bottled this will be seven working days from day after the wine reaches the customer’s account in the bonded warehouse – either their own account or their customer reserve account. It is less clear with en primeur when the period of cancellation ends. 

My comment

I would certainly go along with KA’s decision not to go ahead with the proposed purchase from Seale Wines Ltd, especially as they would be buying en primeur. Seale Wines has no real track record. Their price for the 2008 Lafite is remarkably low and one has to wonder whether they really will be able to supply it at the price quoted.

From the downloadable brochure their understanding of the UK tax laws in respect to Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax appears to be rather sketchy.    

I have emailed Seale Wines Ltd asking for confirmation of the price of the 2008 Lafite and would also welcome any comments they have on this post.  

Response from Searle Wines Ltd: 24th May 2010:  

Dear Mr. Budd,

Thank you for your recent email. Unfortunately we are not in a position to offer any Chateau Lafite 2008 at this time.

Thank you for your enquiry


Kind regards

Purchase order from Seale Wines sent to KA last Thursday for a case of 2008 Lafite, which they were unable to supply on Monday 24th May. I have added the approved stamps to hide KA's details.