The London Vines Ltd: update on Barry Gamble and Robert Phillips

 James Morrison's appointments 

It would appear that 42-year-old Robert Phillips, the sole current director of The London Vines Ltd, may bear a remarkable resemblance to James Morrison, who was a director of Henry Talbot Ltd – closed in the public interest in 2003. Morrison was also company secretary of wine investment company James Hewitt Associates Ltd, which was closed in the public interest in October 2002. James Hewitt Associates Ltd was run by Andrew Dunne, now resident in Northern Cyprus.   

Barry Gamble and Robert Phillips also worked at Countrywide Land, a land banking company. Andrew Dunne was reportedly the ringleader of this £35 million fraud. Gamble says that he worked for Countrywide for about a year. He was aware of Andrew Dunne being involved in the company, but that Dunne was never at any time his manager and he had no association with him. 

Dunne is now understood to be in Northern Cyprus. In addition to Countrywide Land He was involved in a long list of scam companies including Ransby Hoare Associates Ltd, Liquid Acquisitions Ltd, James Hewitt Associates Ltd, Bordeaux UK Ltd (all wine investments) and Paramount Land UK and Consolidated Land UK (both land banking).

investdrinks has been contacted by several clients of The London Vines Ltd, who are concerned about their investments. They have been urged to file complaints through Action Fraud. 

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Capital Bordeaux Investments Ltd may also have disappeared. Annual return is overdue since 22.5.2013 and phone calls are put through to a mailbox.

Hamilton Partners UK: 'a boutique over the counter investment brokerage'

 Hamilton Partners: We source and supply high quality certified diamonds

Details of Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd as 

'leading Carbon Credit Commodity Brokers'

Telesales will be responsible for calling new prospective clients 18.4.2012' 
cold calling?

  

Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd, which was set up on 17th November 2011, is a versatile commodities broker now based at 111 Cannon Street, London EC4N 5AR but was previously based at Cantium House, Station Approach, Wallington. They changed their registered office on 14th January 2013. The sole director is Gavin Daniels. Daniels is also a director of Hamilton Partners Nominees and Hamilton Partners Ltd – both set up on 5th April 2013.  The company's share capital is £1. Daniels has also been a consultant to Sales2Sales Ltd.

Hamilton Partners originally offered investments in carbon credits* but are now offering investments in diamonds as the company explains:      

  

'Hamilton Partners UK are a boutique over the counter investment brokerage who are renowned for delivering the most sustainable, sought after commodities which yield the richest returns for their clients and the company. If we reach a quota in terms of allocations allowed (Carbon Credits) then we can't trade any further credits. Our remit is to move with the ever changing markets to deliver diverse, profitable commodities. You clearly know little of investments otherwise you would understand that diversification means to choose a proportion of assets that reduce fluctuations in value (risk).

We are in regular contact with the FCA despite the fact that we work within an unregulated market and offer an open door policy. We protect the interests of both the client and the company. We also follow arigorous compliance process that adheres toAML legislation and Data protection laws in order to ensure this.'

'With access to the most prestigious diamond mines, suppliers and valuation experts, we are able to source the finest clear cut certified diamonds for re-sale or long-term investment.'

Experienced & Junior Diamond Brokers Needed: 

'Solid sales experience, however for the more junior roles, a good attitude and a desire to move into sales would be considered'

Compare and contrast:

Organisations listed on Hamilton Partners site:

Hamilton list five organisations on their site: EGL USA, AGS Laboratories, HRD Antwerp, International Gemological Institute (IGI) and the GIA. In every instance Hamilton Partners claim to have written the text shown on their site. However, in all five cases this is incorrect as Hamilton Partners have falsely claimed authorship of text from the organisations' sites as their own.

        

 One example: HRD Antwerp: '5th March 2013 
Written by Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd'

Actually just copied from the HRD Antwerp site (see below).

Why did Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd not correctly attribute these quotes in the first place? *

False claim 'Written by Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd  

The HRD Antwerp site 

Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd: 'ever changing markets to deliver diverse, profitable commodities'

2012: carbon credits

2013: diamonds (from late February/early March?)

2014: ?
2015: ? 

Update: 21.00 31st July 2013
* Having been found falsely claiming authorship of the profiles of the five organisations shown on their site, Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd have today amended their site to acknowledge the true authorship of these profiles.

Amended attribution: Written by HRD Antwerp Institute of Gemmology  

Instead of thanking me for alerting them to their error over claiming to have written these profiles Gavin Daniels and Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd have this evening accused me of defamation – a general accusation, I note, rather than pointing out specific instances – and claim to have instituted legal proceedings. 

Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd's explanation (31st July 2013):

'We haven't passed off any context as our own, these are official grading laboratories which verify our stones, therefore we offer full transparency of their context so our clients can verify. Therefore to insinuate any different is defamation!'

Rather misses the point: it was Hamilton Partners who claimed falsely to have written these profiles. Two further examples below: 

Explanation provided (11th October 2013) by Riverview Solicitors, law firm engaged by Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd:

'Our client has explained to you that the quotes you refer to which appeared on our client's wbsite were placed purely for information about the diamond grading laboratories Our Client uses to certify diamonds, and were an attempt to ensure clarity about these labs. By default Our Client's whole website displays the text "written by Hamilton Partners", and any confusion caused by the presence of this statement on the information pages referred to was purely accidental. Our client had no intention to mislead visitors to its site, and immediately upon you drawing attention to this oversight Our Client corrected its website accordingly.'   

It does appear a little odd that this 'oversight' ran from 5th March 2013 to 30th July 2013 without anyone from Hamilton Partners Ltd noticing the false claims of authorship. As Hamilton Partners (UK) Ltd 'are in regular contact with the FCA' one might think that the FCA would have stressed the importance of ensuring that there were no misleading statements on their website.    

Although one might give some credit to sole director, Gavin Daniels, and Hamilton Partners for having amended the false attribution, I certainly have no wish to deal with a company that either claims the words of other organisations as its own or for over four months fails to verify that their website, offering investment opportunities, does not carry misleading statements irrespective of whether they happen to be punting carbon credits, diamonds, eco-investments or bio-fuels etc. 

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* FCA advice on carbon credits 

As the FCA's advice indicates investments in carbon credits now have an uneviable reputation. Also report on FCA Conference on 1st July 2013.  

Some press comment on carbon credits – here, here and here. 

Daniel Snelling: fraudulent entrepreneur not discouraged by adversity

Daniel Snelling 

(from decanter.com) 

Despite being arrested by the Metropolitan Police in March 2010 in connection with Nouveau World Wines Ltd and Finbow Wines Ltd then subsequently being charged with conspiracy to defraud and money laundering, Daniel Snelling was determined to continue his entrepreneurial career. Evidently fleecing investors of £4.5 million through Nouveau and Finbow wasn't sufficient, Snelling was keen to find other vehicles to thin the wallets of his clients. The vehicles have included eco-investments (Green Leaf Global), Biofuel (Infinity Source), Bulgarian real estate (Sandy Pines with Matthew Hart) and may well also include diamonds.  

Here is an account from someone who worked for Daniel Snelling at Infinity Source in late 2010:   

Hi Jim.

Apologies for bothering you but I've been recently reading your blog regarding Daniel Snelling with great interest as I actually worked for Daniel Snelling in late 2010 when he managed a company called Infinity Source that offered investments in a Biofuel called Jatropha.

I worked there under the false impression that it was a legitimate business. At the time Snelling used the alias Daniel Harris, which I stupidly believed was his real name. I worked for Infinity Source for just under two months but never got paid. I tried chasing the unpaid wages but didn't get anywhere as further investigations revealed that the director Timothy Flynn didn't even exist, as well as their 'head office' in Victoria Street turning out to be a virtual office, and that the company ceased trading in April 2011 after police were called to the office in Poplar Business Park after a fight apparently broke out between former Infinity Source staff and current staff/management over unpaid wages. Police ordered the closure of the office as a consequence. According to the manager of the office block, nobody was arrested, however police were apparently investigating the business for fraud. I was quite shocked as the layout of the business and the way it presented itself didn't seem or look anything like a scam and I was actually working there! What also confused me was that if it was a scam how did they ever expect to get away with it? Although Snelling's ignorance/arrogance later became apparent when reading the details of this court case.

It was only when I saw Snelling's picture in the Daily Mail that I found out his true identity. I gave the Insolvency Service details of Infinity Source but never heard anything back from them. From what I've read in the court case about Snelling's 'Biofuel investment plans' it doesn't sound like anyone actually knew about Infinity Source and/or Snelling's association with it.

I'm pleased with the verdict but sadly Snelling's associates will set up another scam firm and carry on conning people.

The guy that placed me at Infinity Source was a friend of Snelling's called Gavin Daniels (or at least that's what he said his name was). He claimed to run a recruitment company called Sales2sales which turned out to be non-existent as Sales2sales was struck off by Companies House after never filing accounts. 

   

Did any customers of Finbow Wines receive calls from Infinity Source. The chances are that they used the same lists of leads. Despite Infinity Source being a relatively new company their leads lists had scribble marks all over them like they had been called many times before.

I did have some subconscious doubts about the legitimacy of the business, however at the recruitment session Daniel Snelling held at the Hilton Hotel in Canada Water in October 2010, he was just as convincing conning myself and others into dodgy non-jobs, as he was conning investors out of money. 

As well as Daniel Snelling, his girlfriend Kelly Humphreys worked at the office doing admin and secretarial work for Snelling. I also remember Dina Snelling attending the office once but only as a visitor. I didn't know her name or relation to Snelling. Two other senior members of staff that worked there were a 'Mike Harris'* (who was apparently a relation of Daniel as well. One member of staff claimed Mike was his brother. Another claimed Mike was his cousin). Another senior guy used the name 'Joe Clark' although later enquiries with the office block manager claimed he also used the name Joe Prosser. From the photos in news articles, I never saw Simon Dempsey or Rebecca MacDonald at the offices.

Apologies if this is somewhat garbled and confusing but part of this was pre-written to put in the comments section of your blog, however for possible technical reasons, I can't seem to be able to post on your blog.

As I previously said, my main concern is that Daniel Snelling's associates will continue to con investors and gullible employers via other companies. 

Thank you for providing the details of one of the investigating officers in the Nouveau/ Finbow Wines case. I shall contact him in due course.

Regards,

********** 

* Mike Harris may well be Michael Snelling, a younger brother of Daniel. He was one of the sales team at Nouveau World Wines Ltd, where his name was Mike Lancaster, and at Finbow Wines ltd, where his name had changed to Mike James.

FSA advice on investments in carbon credits.