Metropolitan Bond – another scam clone of the legitimate London City Bond site

NB: There are no miraculous stashes of wine left
over from
bust European Fine Wines.

'I can confirm that all the wine purchased by the Company has been sold and I am not aware of any wine held in bonded warehouses or overseas.'
From the liquidator's latest report filed at Companies House on 8th September 2020
 

Here follows the latest White Knight attempt to extract money from creditors of European Fine Wines. It is a scam:

  

Following on from Barkingside Premier Storage cloning the legitimate London City Bond website, a new clone bonded warehouse site – Metropolitan Bond – was registered on 28th August 2020.

 

  

Again as was the case with Barkingside the Metropolitan Bond website is a direct copy of the LCB site. 

'About' from the LCB site

Metropolitan Bond
Same words, same people:
Ben Jones and Alf Allington
A rip off copy

 

 

Metropolitan Bond claims to be based at 83 Baker Street in the West End of London. Anyone knowing anything about bonded warehouses would know that this is ridiculous. Bonded warehouses need a substantial space, especially one that sets out the Key Facts above – again a direct rip-off from the LCB site. Unsurprisingly 83 Baker Street is a virtual office/serviced office – not a bonded warehouse....

It looks like the clowns who put together the Metropolitan Bond website were in such a rush that they just copied their previous website Barkingside Premier Storage. Unfortunately they neglected to replace Barkingside Premier Storage with Metropolitan Bond in the section on Insurance: 

 

Metropolitan site: 'At one time Barkingside did offer...'
'This led Barkingside Premier Storage...'

 Metropolitan site: 'It is therefore important to note
that Barkingside Premier Storage....

Barkingside site: 'It is therefore important to note
that Barkingside Premier Storage....

  

LCB site (the original source):
'It is therefore important to note
that LCB....'

Letter (29th September 2020) to an European Fine Wines client from Scott Killick, Storage Manager at Metropolitan Bond: 

 

Scott Killick:

We are writing to you today in reference to a number of complaints highlighting the growing frustration surrounding 'European Fine Wines'. We understand a large percentage of clients have been patiently awaiting an update in regard to their assets, currently being stored with us under the 'European Fine Wines' company account.

For almost 36 months we have been working and collaborating with relevant parties to provide clients with a solution. We have now reached a point where clients can expect to have some level of insight in regard to their investment. In addition to the court delays, our main concern was allocating the wines that have been paid for but not officially assigned to clients. Through an extensive and thorough investigation, we have now managed to allocate a large bulk of clients' wines, which were initially frozen and seized within our administrator accounts. We can now confirm that the courts have given us the go ahead to officially release these wines from the bonded account in which they are currently being held.'
 

Killick's fantasy narrative continues for several more paragraphs.. What a shame that Killick has spent nearly 36 months on this project. Instead he ought to have contacted the liquidator who could have put him straight:

Note from the Liquidator's latest report:

 

 

Important statement and clarification:

From the Liquidator's report (above) for period 25.6.19/ 24.6.20 

Note (17th August 2020) to all known members and creditors: 

'I have been made aware that a number of investors have been approached by parties purporting to have located customer's wine in storage, or acting either on behalf of or in succession to Abbott Fielding in an attempt to extract money with the promise of the release of wine they have located or sale of the wine to a buyer. Please  be aware I will never ask creditors to pay any money to release wine or the payment of a dividend. I also have no intention in appointing a 3rd party to act on my behalf to release the wine of funds.

I can confirm that all the wine purchased by the Company has been sold and I am not aware of any wine held in bonded warehouses or overseas.'

•••

 

I have emailed Scott Killick (probably not his real name) and sent him a copy of the liquidator's latest report and drawn his attention to Page 4 of the report – see above. I have also invited him to comment on this post.

Metropolitan Bond - same words,
same people: Ben Jones and Alf

Barkingside Premier Storage/TMT Investments: more cloning (Part 2)

 

Home page of the TMT Investments site 

the site is a scam using a company name that has also been cloned 

 

 

This second post on the Barkingside Premier Storage scam includes coverage of TMT Investments Ltd, a company that has also been cloned by these fraudsters, who have also cloned the London City Bond site calling it Barkingside Premier Storage. See first post here. 

The fake TMT Investments Ltd site was
registered on 24th August 2020 

 

The legitimate TMT Investments Ltd company was incorporated at Companies House on 16th March 2017 and its registered office is at 55 Station Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, HP9 1QL. The sole director is Raymond Terence Stocker at Berkhamstead. Stocker became aware that his company had been cloned some three months ago and has subsequently been trying to get it closed down.     

 

 

More screen grabs from the scam TMT Investments Ltd site

 

Fraudsters' virtual office on 37th Floor, 1 Canada Square, London. E14 5AB
The real TMT Investments Ltd has not have an office at Canary Wharf

 

RZ, a client of bust European Fine Wines, who had sparked my first post on the Barkingside Premier Storage scam was duly contacted by 'TMT Investments Ltd'. They were told that they had a buyer for their four cases of Bordeaux that had miraculously turned up at Barkingside Premier Storage....

RZ told investdrinks: 'They claim Waldorf Astoria hotel group has offered £22,894 for the wine. Buyer will pay them 7% fee. I have to pay £2,747 deposit first They are sending through terms. There’s an escrow arrangement so my wine is safe (LoL) until buyer pays. TMT will the inspect. If OK I will sign ownership over to buyer and get paid. If not OK - I will get my deposit back.They are sending terms now and want deposit today.....

RZ correctly concluded: 'I think the con is that I have to pay a 12% refundable deposit - which they claim I get back if the deal doesn't go through...'

The whole 'deal' is a complete fantasy – the wine doesn't exist nor does Barkingside Premier Storage. The four cases of Bordeaux could be bought from legitimate wine merchants for £19930 (checked through wine-searcher) – substantially below the offer of £22,894 through 'TMT' . RZ challenged the higher valuation 'TMT' salesman played up the higher value as the end user (ie Waldorf Astoria group) will be selling on at "the sort of prices you would see in hotel/bars"!! LOL!! 

TMT soon sent their invoice, terms and conditions and a letter apparently signed by Ronald Terence Stocker (director).

 

 

It was this letter that made me think that TMT Investments Ltd might well have been cloned. It is rare for fraudsters to use their real names but here was Stocker signing a letter promoting an advance fee fraud!  

Checking through Companies House showed that 70-year-old Stocker was a director of 10 companies including Screen & Music Travel Ltd and D.T. Properties, which all looked to be legitimate companies. Furthermore TMT Investments Ltd is a property company and none of Stocker's companies are connected to wine. It seemed highly unlikely and curious that a 70-year-old based in Berkhamstead would be actively involved with these fraudsters, who are probably in their 20s and 30s and likely to be based in Bromley or Croydon. 

The signature on the letter was the real giveaway. Looking at Stocker's actual signature on a number of documents filed with Companies House over more than a decade the signature on the letter (26.8.2020) bears no relation to Stocker's habitual signature, which has remained consistent.

 

Terence Stocker's signature: 17.3.2020 

 

Signature 13.12.18

Scam letter – 26th August 2020: 

Signature on advance fee fraud letter
Clearly not the same person

 

 

Telephone: 020-7459 4463 

Searching 020-7459 4463 on 'Who called me?' brings up several warnings about this scam. The number has an overall rating as dangerous. See below:

 

 
 

investdrinks has passed these details of this advance fee fraud onto  the Serious Fraud and Cyber Unit of Hertfordshire Police based at Welwyn Garden City. Anyone aware of a company being cloned or this type of advance fee fraud should submit a report to Action Fraud.

The more complaints received about a particular fraud/scam the greater likelihood of it being taken up by the police . 

Warning scam clone site: Barkingside Premier Storage

 

 

About us: Barkingside Premier Storage 

Last week I was contacted by RZ, a former client investor of now bust European Fine Wines. They had been contacted and told that miraculously they had some additional wines that had been bought by EFW (European Fine Wines):

 

'EFW bought wines with my money, they may have not been totally transparent with the use of my funds and may have bought additional wines and stored them in my name. These wines appear to have been kept in store at Barkingside - which I have never heard of - and for data protection reasons, Barkingside has sent me a list of wines that appear to be in their store under my name.'

The investor then received an email from a Mr Daniel Wickman, 'storage manager' at Barkingside Premier Storage:

'As requested, we are writing to you in regard to your request for a stock report, we have therefore documented below your stock rotation report (*******) inclusive of the wines that we are currently storing under our administrator account on your behalf:

Chateau Haut Brion 2009 (12x75cl)
Chateau Haut Brion 2010 (12x75cl)
Chateau Montrose 2011 (12x75cl)
Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2009 (12x75cl)'

The investor doubtless had mixed emotions when they received Wickham's message. Delight that unknown to them they had four cases of wine that EFW had kindly bought for them. Suspicion that that this unexpected windfall was part of a scam, so they contacted investdrinks to ask what I knew of Barkingside Premier Storage.   

It soon became clear that the investor was wise to be suspicious. There is no such business as Barkingside Premier Storage and the four cases of wine is the figment of a scamster's imagination. 

The Barkingside Premier Storage website is a clone of the London City Bond (LCB) website. LCB is a legitimate company and is the UK's largest bonded warehouse business, which was founded in 1870 and has a fine wine division with storage available at a number of sites as well as providing bonded warehouse facilities for the wine and spirit trade. Alf Allington is a director of LCB and Ben Jones is a former director. Neither have any connection with Barkingside Premier Storage.

It is instructive to compare the two websites to see that Barkingside is a direct copy of LCB.     

 

 

 

The scamsters behind Barkingside Premier Storage website, which is hosted by godaddy.com, have used the text from the LCB with out their permission and knowledge. 

 

Details of Barkingside Premier Storage site
(registered 27th May 2020) hosted by GoDaddy. 

 

However, LCB is now aware of the scam Barkingside Premier Storage site and on 29th July 2020 they wrote to all of their private customers warning them Barkingside Premier Storage was a scam. Although Barkingside copied LCB's text they have no access to LCB's customers' data. 

So what's the scam?

 

The four case of Bordeaux do not exist and Barkingside Premier Storage, which has  no entry on the register of UK companies, certainly does not have a warehouse at 565 Ripple Road, Dagenham RM6 4QL – Barkingside's address included in Wickham's email. As the satellite photo above shows No 565 is a private house beside the busy A13 hardly a suitable premises for the 'largest and most successful privately-owned tax warehousing company in the UK'....... However, the postcode (RM6 4QL) given by Wickham is not for Ripple Road but for The Coppins, Chadwell Avenue, Romford RM6 4QL.

This is 'white knight' operation and almost certainly an advance fee fraud. The investor will be told that to sell or get hold of their 'wine' they will need to pay a fee .... The wine, however, is very unlikely to be sold nor and it is equally unlikely that will they see these four cases of fine Bordeaux.  

The telephone number (020-7971 1208) for Barkingside is listed by Who Called Me? as 'dangerous': 

  

Barkingside Premier Storage claim that 'We trade under the current conditions and contracts of the UK Warehousing Association and Road Haulage Association'. Another highly unlikely claim.

 

I trust that LCB can get the Barkingside scam site closed down. They have been in touch with godaddy who host the Barkingside scam site. My strong advice is to steer well clear of Barkingside Premier Storage. 

Update: victims of other companies contacted

Following a tweet about the Barkingside Premier Storage scam, it is now clear that clients of Imperial Fine Wines Ltd, which changed its name on 10.1.2017 to Imperial Wine & Spirits Merchant, has also been contacted by Barkingside. The accounts and confirmation statement for Imperial are both overdue and a compulsory strike off has been suspended (8.5.2019). 

 

 

A client of the well-established and legitimate Ditton Wine Company also received an email (above) from Daniel Wickham (unlikely to be his real name) claiming that Barkingside had some stock for him. The client was advised that this was a scam. 

 

Warning of this scam sent to members of Wine Owners (24.8.2020): 

 

 

 

 

   Barkingside Premier Storage has been invited to comment.