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Tuesday 30 December 2014

Land-banking scammer disqualified as director for 14 years


Director disqualified for £1.7 million landbanking scam that left customers with virtually worthless land
A company director who ran an extensive landbanking scam through his three companies that misled members of the public into parting with at least £1.7 million for small plots of land of little value has been disqualified from being a company director for 14 years.

A company director who ran an extensive landbanking scam through his three companies that misled members of the public into parting with at least £1.7 million for small plots of land of little value has been disqualified from being a company director for 14 years.
 
Eren Metcalfe, formerly known as Eren Cemal Ibrahim, was the sole director of Natural Wealth Solutions Ltd, Proctor Capital Ltd and Land Security Management Ltd, three companies that were wound up in the public interest by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, after an investigation carried out by Live Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, following complaints by members of the public. 

Examination of the companies’ affairs by the Official Receiver after the winding up orders showed that, between them, Natural Wealth Solutions Ltd and Proctor Capital Ltd received at least £1.7 million, the proceeds of a land banking scheme which misled members of the public in order to induce them to buy plots of land as an investment, when it was not.

The companies’ salespeople represented the plots of land that they marketed as being suitable for development and having a realistic prospect of obtaining planning permission. However, the land sold to customers had little, if any, value for development purposes and was sold at mark ups of between 18 and 63 times the purchase price per acre. None of the land had planning permission, and had little prospect of obtaining it. Neither Mr Metcalfe nor the staff had any expertise in assessing land, and made no enquiries as to the likelihood of planning permission being granted. 

Commenting on the disqualifications Paul Titherington, Official Receiver at The Insolvency Service’s Public Interest Unit, said:
As with all the other land banking companies that the Official Receiver has dealt with over many years, these companies have brought misery to unsuspecting members of the public, who were persuaded to part with their savings in exchange for virtually worthless plots of land. In over 7 years of dealing with land banking scams I have not seen a single piece of land that has been sold in this way actually go on to obtain planning permission. Every single customer has lost their money in what was a horrendous investment. (Bold by ed)


Although for a relatively small total 'at least £1.7 million compared to the £35 million involved in the Countrywide Land £35 million fraud, it has some of the same hallmarks – land sold on the virtually impossible promise that it would be rezoned and investors systematically misled by a boiler room  telesales staff.
 
Countrywide Land sold plots of land that were touted as an investment. In reality they were worthless of next to worthless. Some of the ringleaders of this £35 million fraud were jailed on 8th March 2013, although Andrew Dunne is believed to be still in Northern Cyprus. 




 
   
 

Tuesday 2 December 2014

Prime Trading 5 Ltd: not for me thanks nor Santander!


From their website: Prime Trading 5 since 2006
(misleading website was set up on 3rd November 2012)


Château d'Yquem: the 1998 is favourite investment 
wine offered by Prime Trading 5 Ltd

Prime Trading 5 Ltd is an off-the-shelf company that was formed on 24th May 2006. However, it was dormant until at least the end of May 2012. The current sole director and sole shareholder (£100) is 25-year-old Aaron Scott Britten. He was appointed on 23rd October 2012 and the company website was registered on 3rd November 2012. 

Prime Trading 5 Ltd claims on its website, agreements and in conversations to its clients that it has been trading since 2006. This is clearly false as the company actually started only two years ago and not eight as it likes to mislead its clients. 

On its website the company address is claimed to be: Prime Trading 5 Limited 3-15 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1DU. However, the more likely trading address is: Onega House, 112 Main Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 6NE.

investdrinks has received two complaints about this company. Both relate to its blunt and repeated refusal to refund money sent to the company to buy wine and then subsequently cancelled. Prime Trading 5 Ltd has refused to accept that bottled wine is covered by The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which came into force on 13th June 2014. 


Prime Trading 5 Ltd's attempt to get 
clients to sign away their statutory rights 

From the agreement:
'I confirm that the above order details are correct. I confirm that I have read & understand these terms & accept these in full for the above order. I understand that by signing below a legally binding contract will be in force.

In view of the Product, I understand and agree that I do not have any rights to the statutory cooling off period.' 

They have further maintained that the client can sign their statutory rights away (see above). According, in a phone conversation recorded on 1st December, Michael Scott, Prime Trading 5's Compliance Officer, told an elderly client's daughter (AB) that if you 'sign the agreement you don't have a leg to stand on'. 

Michael Scott, which may or may not be his real name (Aaron Scott Britten?), is right about not having 'a leg to stand on' but it is the company who is legless and not the client as you cannot sign away your statutory rights – in this instance the right of cancellation. One has to question Mr Scott's qualifications to be the Compliance Officer as he appears to be relying on law invented by Prime Trading 5 Ltd and not the law of England & Wales that their T&Cs say governs the client agreement.

Aaron Scott Brittten is relying on part of Paragraph 28 d of the Act. However, all three of the clauses (i, ii, iii) have to apply for there to be an exemption from cancellation for bottled wine. Crucially the wines that Prime Trading Ltd are selling can be delivered within 30 days (as set out in clause ii) as Michael Scott assured AB that all three cases purchased were in Prime Trading 5's account at LCB.  

Prime Trading 5 Ltd is now trying to insist (see email below) that AB sets up a private account at LCB and arranges to transfer the wines out of Prime Trading 5 Ltd's account into theirs. Instead of this pantomime Aaron Scott Brittten and Prime Trading 5 Ltd should refund the money in full in the statutory 14 days from receipt of the cancellation order.   

Email from Prime Trading 5 Ltd 19.29 2nd December 2014:   
-->
“Following the conversation with your daughters Prime Trading 5 can confirm that for us to proceed in any way the stock needs to be transferred into your personal account. We have spent many hours explaining the same thing and we still haven managed to achieve anything.  Prime Trading 5 request William Newell opens his account asap so we can transfer stock into his account. We at prime trading 5 achieve to offer customer service which is second to none but we cant spend over 3/4 hours on the phone explaining the same thing over and over again. We will have no further contact until your account is opened which will allow us to proceed in managing stock in the future.” 


Actually the only way to proceed is for Prime Trading 5 Ltd and Aaron Scott Britten to comply with the law and refund the money. It is bizarre that they are being so obdurate over this!      
 
Another client (JH) has contacted me  It appears that it isn't just some of clients of Prime Trading 5 Ltd, who have issues with the company. JH paid an initial deposit £2000 and then arranged for the balance (£48,000) to be processed through his bank – Santander. However, the bank was suspicious – stopped the payment and referred the transaction to their fraud investigation team. JH then demanded his £2000 back from Prime Trading 5 Ltd, who appear to be treating it as a non-returnable deposit. Again the company is in complete contravention of 2013 The Consumer Contracts Law. Sole director Aaron Scott Britten might find it illuminating to read Chapter 2: Offences. 

Just received (3.12.14) Prime Trading 5 Ltd's agreement with JH, which he refused to sign. Just to show how 'professional' this company is they couldn't even spell his name correctly! When Santander blocked the balance Prime Trading 5 told JH it would take two weeks to process the refund. This is now due – Mr Aaron Scott Britten.       


 
'We arrange for your Product to be stored in our bonded 
warehouse account at London City Bond, Olympus 91-101, 
River Road, Barking, IG11 0EG ("Facility"), 
which specialises in the long-term storage of fine wine'  
      
In their terms & conditions 'Bonded Warehouse' Aaron Scott Britten and Prime Trading 5 Ltd show their grasp of how the fine wine market is organised. They tell clients that their wine will be at River Road in Barking. It won't as LCB's specialist fine wine storage is a few hours drive north at Burton-on-Trent.    

I'm going to follow Santander's keen instinct and have nothing to do with Prime Trading 5 Ltd.  

Friday 7 November 2014

Electus Wines Ltd – rises from the ashes of Vinance plc.... or does it?


It was nearly two weeks ago that a comment from an anonymous source alerted me to the existence of Simon Ford's Electus Wines Ltd:
'Jim, after the Vinance debacle am stupefied to see that Simon Ford has set up a new wine investment firm.'

Following Vinance plc's collapse into liquidation on 17th May 2013, Electus Wines Ltd was set up on 16th July 2013. It has two directors 37-year-old Simon John Ford, based in Ottawa, Canada and 69-year-old Timothy Graham Ford (Simon's father) based in London SE3. Electus Wines Ltd is registered c/o Lester Aldridge LLP, WSP House, 70 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1AF. Timothy Ford is a consultant to Lester Aldridge LLP and is the Chairman - Reading University Pension Fund. See his Linkedin profile.

Electus Wines Ltd gives 33 St. James’s Square. London SW1Y 4JS as their UK contact address. This is a serviced/virtual office building. Electus' website was registered on 23.7.2013 at 33 St.James's Square.  

Simon Ford's Electus Wines Ltd does not lack ambition: '…a staging post for the finest wines from the world’s greatest terroirs, and a good friend to customers seeking exceptional value and quality wines that “wow”!' 
(I fancy a few of Vinance plc's creditors have thought "wow" what happened to my pension pot!)  



Simon goes on to boast:
'In 2002 Simon founded what became the UK’s largest specialist wine investment company...'  No mention that this company was Morgan Aston Ford that later became Vinance plc, which went bust in May 2013.  

An update (23.10.14) on Vinance plc from Chris Herron, Joint Liquidator at Herron Fisher.
 
'As regards general progress, Vinance PLC went from Administration to Liquidation on 17 May 2013.  This is normal where there is money to pay to creditors and the liquidation facilitates that distribution.  We have paid creditors 15p in the pound so far and expect to pay a second, smaller distribution in the new year.  The total creditor figure is approximately £15M.
 
Completely separately from this, we have returned perhaps £20M worth of wine to investors, having followed the audit trail and established that they owned it rather than the company. We remain puzzled as to why other insolvency practitioners appear not to have always taken this approach in other cases, where they have sometimes simply sold all the wine, even that owned by third parties, to put “in the pot.”'

The liquidators are required to report to The Insolvency Service on the conduct of directors of bankrupt companies. It would not be surprising if Herron Fisher's report on the directors of Vinance plc is not entirely complementary. The Insolvency Service can then decide to take action to disqualify someone from being a director. 

In February 2013 two of Vinance plc's directors – 59-year-old Simon Earl and 52-year-old Michael Wallen – were sent to prison for their part in running a brothel called Freddy's. Earl got two years and Wallen two years and five months. Details here and here.  


Yesterday I emailed Simon Ford some questions about Electus and am grateful for his rapid response:    
a) On the Electus website Lillian Kawasa is described as 'Director and Special Events Organiser'. However, she is not listed as a director at Companies House and appears to not to be a director of any UK company. Why then is she described as a 'director'.  

SF: Lillian Kawesa is a director of our Canadian company, as am I. 

b) There are two directors of Electus – yourself and and your father – Timothy Graham Ford. Why is your father not mentioned on your website? After all he has had a highly distinguished career both in law and outside – hospitals and Reading University.
SF: As you correctly say, my father Timothy Ford has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the law and continues to enjoy one in public service; we couldn’t see the relevance of this to our wine buying audience.
c) 'In 2002 Simon founded what became the UK's largest largest specialist wine investment company...' Why no mention here of Vinance PLC, which went bust on 17th May 2013 with debts of around £15 million. To date your creditors have received 15p in the £ and can expect a smaller distribution early in 2015.
SF: 'Our principal business is that of a wine merchant to customers in Africa, North America, and Asia. Vinance’s business has no relevance to this.'
d) Will you be running Electus from Ottawa?

SF: 'I shall be running Electus from Ottawa.'

e) You and the other directors of Vinance were severely criticised by the Herron Fisher, the administrators (later liquidators), in their report of 17th December 2012 (investdrinks):

From the report: ‘We have asked the directors to prepare a summary of the company's estimated financial position as at 16 November 2012, which is known as a statement of affairs, but they have not yet prepared it. We understand that the reason for the delay is that there is too much uncertainty about the company's financial position and in particular the wine for which clients have paid.’

‘It was apparent that the company's records were inadequate and that the position of each individual client was not recorded properly.  The directors could not easily work out which clients were short of wine they had ordered and paid for or what the extent of the shortfall was.  The clients themselves were unaware that there was any problem, although many of them thought (and stated) that the company's systems left something to be desired.’

What measures have you put in place to ensure that Electus Wines Ltd is not Vinance plc Mark 2 please? 
SF: 'Electus and Vinance are two quite unrelated businesses. I will be putting my business experience at Electus’s service and we will will not be managing clients’ cellars.

You may be interested to note that we are only offering our cellar advisory service, where we help our customers source rare wines and spirits, because we have been invited to do so by individuals with first hand experience of Vinance who came to us, not by us seeking them. Indeed I haven’t approached anyone to buy wine from us, and nor do I intend to. Our customers have found us with no encouragement at all.'
Simon Ford explains that Electus' principal business will be with customers in Africa, North America, and Asia, so they allegedly would not be interested in the fate of Vinance plc. He may be right. However, if it is relevant that Simon Ford founded a wine investment company in 2002, then it is equally relevant that it went bust in 2013 to the tune of £15 million.

SF: 'my business experience at Electus’s service' – given Vinance's record keeping and the £15 million bust this may not be good news for customers of Electus....
SF: 'I shall be running Electus from Ottawa.'
There is nothing on the Electus Wines website (as of 7th November 2014) to indicate that the company is being run from Canada – no Canadian contact details or company number. Indeed it gives the impression that the company is run from London and is UK based:

'Three years in the making, Electus Wines was formed in London in 2013'. Electus Wines Ltd is a UK registered company and its contact details – telephone and address – both are for Central London. I asked Simon Ford whether there was a separate Canadian website but so far have received no reply.    

I understand that Simon Ford may soon be offering brass necks as an investment.... 

Update: 8th November 2014

A response received today from Simon Ford following me asking whether they have a Canadian website:


Dear Jim,

You're most welcome.

I have not completed the process of assembling the business in Canada for our Canadian company and am completing new site content including addresses etc and I'll let you know when it's finished if you like?
I’m very keen to bring a fresh approach with our cellar advisory service. It will be a new business model never before seen in the marketplace. As I said in my last email we're not managing customers' cellars, rather we intend to market our knowledge, experience and know-how regarding identifying value which we have learned over the last decade at work in the market and which has proven hugely successful as well with 5 year average price growth of 130%. As your recent posts on the Premier Cru / Cult Wine story show, even the longest established wine managers aren't immune to problems bound up in these managed business models and it may be the case that we're coming to the end of an era. We may be seeing the last days of these Aston Lovell type front and back end commission outfits, perhaps even of wine funds with their performance fees and management fees, and, who knows, maybe even of merchants and their margins as well? In the wake of Premier Cru's collapse there is certainly much to ponder for us all. We will certainly avoid repeating oft-made mistakes with our cellar advisory service approach and bring real evolution to the market. You will appreciate I am constrained by commercial confidentiality presently, but once we start accepting customers it would be great to think that you might be able to help us reach wine investors who look to you for guidance with news of our new business model because it will be of real interest to them. I think you'll be very interested in our novel approach too. I shall keep you informed of developments at any rate if you wish? There is much still ponder but when it is completed our new model will represent true evolution and real value for customers. For example, Simon Staples of Berry's has predicted major bidding wars for first growths in the coming decades - he's even gone on record stating Lafite 2005 may be changing hands at £10 million a case by 2058 - do you think this might happen? How do you see the market developing? And will investors be trading Chinese and Indian fine wines on Cavex in a few years do you think?  
I'm very much enjoying the move to the merchant side of the market; much more interesting and enjoyable. Please let me know if you can recommend some entry-level Loire wines for our African and Chinese customers. So far we've been focussing on the S.W. France of course, as pricing there is most suitable for our customers' purposes. We’re always looking for more great examples of French terrors and you obviously know a thing or two about the Loire region. Let me know if you’d like to help us?

All good wishes,
Cordialement,

Simon Ford
Director
Electus Wines Limited
33 St James's Square
London SW1Y 4JS
Tel +44 (0) 20 7129 1265
Mob +1 613 301 7776
Email simon.ford@electuswines.com
Web www.electuswines.com


 














Tuesday 21 October 2014

ADT Brokerage: not for me thanks!


Introduction to ADT Brokerage 'a privately-owned 
and operated wine merchant' from their home page


I recently came across ADT Brokerage – sometimes called ADT Brokerage Ltd and decided to do a spot of due diligence on the company. So first a look at the website (http://www.adtbrokerage.com): 


'ADT Brokerge is a privately-owned and operated wine merchant, involved in the buying and selling of fine and premium wines from traditional European wine regions as well as South America and South Africa for sale primarily to our Asian client base.

The majority of our staff are wine experts with a plethora of working experience within the Fine Wine Industry, as well as having a team of regional specialists from most of the major wine producing regions of the world. When sourcing En Premier Wines for our clients, we aim to present rare, interesting and ultimately, wines that will become investment must-haves.' 

ADT Brokerage's site has plenty of guff but little substance. I assume by En Premier they mean En Primeur, which is correctly spelt in the explanation.  

A Paul Morrison is said to be the Business Director of ADT Brokerage Ltd. But hang on the picture of a bald chap purporting to be Mr Morrison appears familiar. A search on Google Images shows that the same Mr Morrison is apparently involved in many companies such as Krapf Chiropractic Associates, AEC Factory, Injury Demands, Assurity Staffing Group, Chodosh & Chodosh, Pipsco, Matik Financial (where he is called Scott Neve, international sales manager, and many more. 

Although doubtless Paul Morrison is multi-talented, this is a stock photo for businesses as are other photos on the ADT Brokerage site. 

The ADT Brokerage site does not include Terms & Conditions. The contact address: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX is a mailing address. No contact details are given for Asia although the company claims that its sales are 'primarily to our Asian client base'. 

ADT Brokerage Ltd is not a registered UK company. Copyright on their website is dated 2012 but the website was registered very recently – on 5th October 2014 in Denmark. ADT Brokerage Ltd's website registrant is Jason Chambers, 191C Seven Sisters Road, London N4 3NG. 44-year-old Jason Chambers became the sole director of Viprix Solutions Ltd (described as a 'Software Consultancy') on 5th June 2014 – this is Chambers' only directorship.   
 


Registrant: Jason Chambers   

Given the lack of solid information about the ADT Brokerage including whether the company has any track record or expertise in fine wine, ADT Brokerage Ltd is not for me thanks! 
   


 


 

1947 Musigny Vieilles Vignes – 'serious reservations'

Message received this morning from Corney & Barrow expressing serious doubts about some 1947 Musigny Vieilles Vignes

'Good morning,

As the UK agents for Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé we would like to make you aware of the following:

A quantity of 1947 Musigny Vieilles Vignes appears to be being offered to the trade. It is suggested that it comes from a private European cellar and to have been released from the Domaine in the 1980’s.

The Domaine and Corney & Barrow are  aware of this and have serious reservations as to the authenticity of these bottles/cases. Should you be offered this wine we would be most interested to hear from you.

Yours sincerely

Will

Will Hargrove
Associate director and head of fine wine
DL: (44) 020-7265 2418
M: (44) (0) 7879 818693
E: will.hargrove@corneyandbarrow.com
corneyandbarrow.com

Tuesday 19 August 2014

Farr Vintners buys Magnum Fine Wines




Farr Vintners has today announced that they have bought long established Magnum Fine Wines Ltd, which was founded in 1985. Alan Rayne, who has been a director of the company since 1992 and its managing director for many years, has decided to retire, which is fair enough given that he was born in the great vintage of 1947.

Magnum has been a properly run wine investment company and had there been more Magnums the image of wine investment today would surely not be sharing the floor with carbon credits, coloured diamonds and the like.

Message from Stephen Browett, chairman of Farr Vintners  
'Farr Vintners is delighted to announce that we have purchased Magnum Fine Wines following Alan Rayne’s decision to retire from the wine trade. I have known Alan for nearly 30 years and feel very honoured that he has chosen to entrust Farr Vintners to look after his customers and their wine portfolios in the future. Alan is rightly proud of the business that he has built up and a key part of his decision to pass the company on to Farr Vintners was that he knows that his customers will continue to receive exemplary and professional service.  

Farr Vintners, like Magnum Fine Wines, holds all of its stocks and customer reserves in the outstanding underground cellars of Octavian Vaults. Magnum’s customers can rest assured that they will continue to have their precious wines stored in the world’s best wine storage facility.

Over the last 5 years alone, Farr Vintners, based in Battersea, South London, has sold nearly £600 million worth of fine wine and is now the world’s leading Fine Wine Wholesaler, storing well over a million bottles of wine on behalf of its customers, who are based in many countries all around the world.

Farr Vintners was the first UK wine merchant to open an office in the Far East when Farr Vintners Asia was established in Hong Kong nearly 20 years ago. Our sales teams in both London and Hong Kong will be very pleased to assist Magnum’s customers and offer genuinely informed and expert advice on all aspects of wine buying, selling and storage. The first contact for Magnum customers in the UK is Farr Vintners Director Tom Hudson (tom@farrvintners.com) and in Asia Jo Purcell, Managing Director of Farr Vintners Asia (jopurcell@farrhk.com). However Alan Rayne will be pleased to help and advise customers until he leaves the company at the end of September. 

Over the coming weeks we will be working hard to integrate Magnum Fine Wines’ customer information into our own system and once this is completed we will be able to offer customers access to their portfolios online as well as the wealth of information available to our existing customers. We will contact customers once this process is complete with further details.'

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.