Mayfair Worldwide Trading etc: fraudsters jailed for duping wine investors out of nearly £1m

 Home page of Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd

 Mayfair Worldwide Trading Limited
– 'Trusted Worldwide' !!!!

Christopher Brummitt

currently on the run 

Press release: 5th April 2019

'A group of fraudsters were jailed for a combined 17 years and 9 months today for their part in an elaborate wine investment scam which conned nearly £1m out of investors, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable.

Adam Edwards, Barry Warner, Christopher Brummit, Tarik Drissi and James Brooks were today sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for their actions between 2013 and 2015.

The five men operated three fake companies - Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd, Commodex Global Limited and Winchester Associates Ltd. These companies claimed to be established fine-wine brokers based in prime locations such as Berkeley Square, Mayfair but were in fact based in industrial estate units on the outskirts of Great Dunmow in Essex.

The gang cold-called fine-wine investors from a ‘sucker list’, and through a series of aggressive sales tactics, managed to defraud a number of wine holdings from vulnerable victims. Once these had been obtained, they would be sold on to legitimate buyers, with the proceeds pocketed by the fraudsters.
Victims were then told a series of elaborate lies about the whereabouts of their money. Some were told that their wine had been reinvested into graphene, diamonds or gold.

Sian Mitchell from the CPS Specialist Fraud Division said:

“This was an unscrupulous gang who would go to great lengths to defraud elderly and vulnerable people out of their very valuable wines, many of which represented their savings for their retirement. One of the victims was a disabled man who, as a result of not receiving payment, was unable to buy a new wheelchair.

“They went to great lengths to legitimise their fraudulent activities - Mayfair Worldwide Trading issued a bogus press release claiming that the company had won the ‘2014 ID Times Trading Award for Best Asset Exchange Programme and the Internship Europe Excellence Award.’ Obviously, no such awards existed, and were designed to dupe innocent investors.

“We are delighted to have secured custodial sentences for this group, and will continue to prosecute those who think they can benefit from fraud.”

How the wine fraud operated

1.    Victim A is cold called by ‘David Barrington’ from Mayfair World Trading. Having in reality spoken to the defendant Adam Edwards, Victim A agrees to sell his wines to Mayfair Worldwide Trading (MWT) for £38,228 in a ‘graphene asset swap’, on the understanding graphene will be sold and the sum paid to him in 28 days
2.    The victim instructed LCB Bonded Warehouse to transfer wines to the account of MWT at EHD Bonded Warehouse
3.    A legitimate buyer, Vintners Fine Wine Merchants Ltd, agree to buy the wine for £27,470 and instructs EHD to transfer wines to them
4.    Vintners Ltd transfers payment of £30,970 for these wines (and £3,500 worth of other wine) to the bank account of MWT - none is paid to the victim.
5.    Having spoken to another employee with an assumed name ‘Peter Phillips’ and told there is a problem with the graphene market, Victim A is now told his wines will now be converted to diamonds and sold
6.    Having received no money and struggling to contact MWT, Victim A contacts the police to report the fraud

Sentences

• Adam James Edwards - 6 years plus 5 years Director’s Disqualification Order
• Barrymore Alexis Warner - 5 ½ years
• Tarik Drissi - 3 years
• James Robert Brooks  - 20 months imprisonment suspended for 2 years, 300 hours unpaid work
• Christopher Brummitt – Sentenced in absence – 3 years 3 months, 5 years Director’s Disqualification Order

Other details:

Sian Mitchell is a Specialist Prosecutor from the Specialist Fraud Division of the Crown Prosecution Service'

The successful investigation was a collaboration between Essex Police and the Met. 

Comment:
Good to see these fraudsters sent to jail. Hopefully Christopher Brummitt, who has fled, will soon be caught. However, would have liked to have seen longer disqualifications from serving as a director unless the disqualification period runs from time of release from prison. 

Mayfair's pack of lies

FCA warns on Graphene investments + Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd

Logo of the Financial Conduct Authority

The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) issued a warning on 30th December 2013 about graphene investments:

'Graphene

Published: 30/12/2013   Last Modified : 02/01/2014

We are concerned about investments involving a man-made material called graphene. Find out more and how to protect yourself.

We are receiving many reports from people who have been offered investments in graphene, which is a type of carbon that may one day be used in display screens, electrical circuits and batteries. 

Why are we concerned?

We first uncovered this issue when we found evidence of a 'graphene investment firm' on the computers of a suspected boiler room. So we believe that the same firms that have sold other high risk, dubious products such as carbon credits, rare earth metals and overseas land and crops, are now trying to sell graphene.'

The full warning from the FCA is at the end of this post. 

•••

Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd

The FCA warning is very timely as just before Christmas a putative client of Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd passed me a contract from the company. The contract was an agreement to exchange wine for graphene:

Mayfair were kindly offering to exchange a half case (6 bottles) of 2006 Lafite Rothschild and a full case of 1996 Léoville Las Cases worth around £4800-£5000 for £6800 worth of graphene. Mayfair explain that: 

'At Mayfair Worldwide Trading Limited we have introduced an Asset Exchange program renowned within the city of London. We are currently undergoing a multi-million pound asset exchange program to innovatively get investors out of their under-performing assets with ease and efficiency.' 

I may be risk averse but if I had some 1996 Léoville and 2006 Lafite I would hang onto the wine, even though top Bordeaux has not performed well over the last couple of years. See Liv-ex blog here and Decanter here. Past experience suggests that in time the prices of these wines will increase and that wine should be seen as a medium to long term investment. So why would I want to take the risk with graphene even though Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd are kindly offering to exchange £6800 'worth' of graphene for wine worth less than £5000?

What in any case would I do with £6800 worth of graphene? Who would want it? The FCA point out that: 'Manufacturing companies that use the metals almost always buy them in very large quantities, making it highly unlikely they will deal with small independent retail consumers.'

Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd

Trusted Worldwide

What of Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd? Their glossy website claims that they are 'trusted worldwide' and that:

'With the combined knowledge and experience of our dedicated team of advisers, wealth managers and analysts we believe that we are the market leaders within the commodity sectors, we have an array of products ranging from Gold and Oil to Diamonds and Graphene.

We believe client relationship is key and that is the main cornerstone of our business, we work with many institutions and individuals to always ensure we are setting the highest standards possible.

For all of your alternative investment needs look no further than what our services can provide, our advisors are here from Monday to Friday to fully consult to your investment needs.' 

For a company that was only founded on 14th August 2013 to have become  'trusted worldwide' in less than five months and to be 'the market leaders' is a truly remarkable achievement! The genius running this company is 32-year-old Adam Edwards – amazingly for someone so talented this is his first directorship. 

Under the heading 'Risk Warning' Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd warn that 'The information contained in this website is not intended to constitute and should not be construed as, investment advice. Wise words from Adam Edwards, which I'm pleased to say the putative investor heeded and decided to hang onto his wines and not transfer them to Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd's account. His wines had been purchased from European Fine Wines Ltd and he had told them that he wanted to sell them.

I shall heed Adam Edwards' warning and steer clear of his Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd as his company is not qualified to offer investment advice. Nor are they registered with the FCA, so no protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  

•••

  

The FCA's Graphene warning in full:  

'Graphene

Published: 30/12/2013   Last Modified : 02/01/2014

We are concerned about investments involving a man-made material called graphene. Find out more and how to protect yourself.

We are receiving many reports from people who have been offered investments in graphene, which is a type of carbon that may one day be used in display screens, electrical circuits and batteries. 

Why are we concerned?

We first uncovered this issue when we found evidence of a 'graphene investment firm' on the computers of a suspected boiler room. So we believe that the same firms that have sold other high risk, dubious products such as carbon credits, rare earth metals and overseas land and crops, are now trying to sell graphene.

Manufacturing companies that use the metals almost always buy them in very large quantities, making it highly unlikely they will deal with small independent retail consumers.

It has been reported to us that callers promoting investments in graphene are using dubious, high-pressure sales tactics and targeting vulnerable consumers. There is a strong possibility of fraud with graphene because it is unregulated and it is difficult to confirm that you have bought the genuine product.

Protection when investing 
Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Most firms promoting and selling investments graphene are not authorised by us. We strongly advise you to only deal with financial services firms that are authorised by us, and check our Register to ensure they are.

If you buy an investment product from a firm that is not authorised by us, you will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (ombudsman service) or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if things go wrong.

This also means you will not be able to take your case to the ombudsman service or FSCS if you cannot sell or trade your investment in rare earth metals.

You should also search our list of unauthorised firms to avoid doing business with, although the names of the firms are likely to change regularly.

There are more steps you can take to keep your savings safe – find out how to protect yourself from investment scams.

You can also find out what to do if you think you have been scammed.

http://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/scams/what-to-do-if-you-are-scammed

2014 Happy New Year + a couple of resolutions

Best wishes for a scam-free 2014. To help to keep it scam-free here are two resolutions for 2014:

Never accept cold calls

Ignore asset exchange schemes run by companies such as the recently formed Mayfair Worldwide Trading Ltd – formed in mid-August 2014 and already claims to be 'trusted worldwide'! Exchanging cases of Château Lafite, which should in time recover its value, for a risky investment such as graphene cannot be sensible.