Stephen Cleeve: Commercial Land and legal action

From lovemoney.com

I have been contacted by Jason Marshall, collections director at H&J Recovery Services on 07753-421136, jasonmarshall@hjrecovery.co.uk, www.hjrecovery.co.uk. Marshall represents a client who invested £61,000 in one of Stephen Cleeve's land banking schemes through Commercial Land and saw no return. An out of court settlement has been offered but this has been judged as too low and County Court proceedings have now been launched. 

Marshall is very keen to hear from other clients of Stephen Cleeve, who have invested in his land banking schemes, with a view to taking legal action to recovery money lost. 

I shall be interested to see if following this post I get hassled by one of Stephen Cleeve's expensive legal firms claiming that I am harassing him and invading his privacy. See this 2011 post.

Stephen Cleeve is a formerly banned company director (an 8 year term) and was briefly UKIP's parliamentary candidate for the 2010 General Election until they found out about his past. 
     
  

Stephen Cleeve suspended as parliamentary candidate by UKIP

The Kensington & Chelsea Chronicle reports here that Stephen Cleeve has been suspended by UKIP as their parliamentary candidate for Kensington 'pending further investigations'.

The Chronicle reports incorrectly that Stephen Cleeve was 'involved with a whisky scam in Australia'. Cleeve certainly attempted to sell plots of land in the UK to Australians but not I think whisky.

Cleeve said: "I am not banned from being a company director." This is correct as his 8 year ban on being a UK company director ended on 7th February 2008.  

Cleeve told the Chronicle that "I am certain that further investigation will prove I have done nothing wrong and I look forward to clearing my name, and standing for parliament."

To clarify the situation regarding the closure of Forrester & Lamego Ltd in 1997 I checked the documents at Companies House. On 23rd July 1997 Forrester & Lamego Ltd was ordered by Mr Justice Robert Walker in London's High Court to be wound up under the provisions of the Insolvency Act 1986 following a petition by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry presented on 11th February 1997.

The judge also ordered that: 'the costs of the Petitioner of the said Petition including the costs of 14th February 1997 and 5th March 1997 be paid out of the assets of the said Company such Order as to costs to be without prejudice to the Petitioner's liberty to apply on notice for the costs of the Petition to be borne by Mr Cleeve (a director) personally'. 

At the hearings on 14th February and 5th March Stephen Cleeve and his lawyers had successfully fought off the DTI's initial attempts to close the company in the public interest.

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8th April 2010: It appears from UKIP's site that Stephen Cleeve is no longer UKIP's candidate for Kensington. He has been replaced by Lady Caroline Pearson.

8th April 2010 22.25: An apparent change of mind as the message is now: We still haven't finalised our candidate to stand in Kensington. Find out how you can get involved in other ways, or donate by clicking  here.

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Stephen Cleeve (on twitter  8:46 AM Apr 8th via web) 
Sadly business commitments have forced me to stand down as the UKIP candidate for Kensington, I wish Lady Caroline Pearson all the best.

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Tony Hetherington in the Mail on Sunday (10th April 2010) devoted a whole page to Stephen Cleeve in the Money section.

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13th April: It turns out that it is Lady Caroline Pearson, who is replacing Stephen Cleeve, but this time she has a fuller title that includes 'of Rannoch'.