Millionaire Jaguar collector lost £150k to rogue salesman
A MULTI-millionaire classic car enthusiast lost £150,000 at the hands of a rogue salesman he had entrusted to find and restore an E-Type Jaguar.
Scott Shearman was one of a number of collectors who were stung for £400,000 by Scott Nicolson.
A court heard he would send regular updates to clients showing progress being made on the restoration of vehicles they were paying for. But in some cases the cars were not Nicolson’s to sell and belonged to other clients.
It was only after his company Barbary Hill went into administration in 2018 that customers discovered they had been left out of pocket.
Businessman Mr Shearman is such a fan of Jaguar that he bought Wappenbury Hall in Warwickshire, the country estate which was home to the British marque’s founder Sir William Lyons for more than 50 years.
He had planned to display the 1961 EType as part of his collection of classic cars at the £3.6million estate, and paid £129,993 to Nicolson’s company to have it sourced and restored. But within
‘Financial impact a sore point’
weeks of paying for it, Barbary Hill went into administration.
Prosecutor Joey Kwong told Lincoln Crown Court the firm would ‘ source, purchase and restore classic Jaguar motor vehicles’ from around the world, with Nicolson retaining possession of them until restoration was complete.
He said Nicolson, 45, had employed the grandson of former Jaguar chief engineer Bill Haynes, which ‘no doubt led Jaguar aficionados to take their custom to Barbary Hill’.
Mr Kwong said that, while William Haynes had ‘ intimate knowledge’ of Jaguar vehicles and oversaw the restoration workshop, he had no involvement in the finances of the company and was unaware of Nicolson’s offending.
He continued: ‘ Mr Shearman had already purchased 30 classic cars for restoration. He was recommended to Nicolson because William Haynes was the grandson of Jaguar’s longtime chief engineer.’
Nicolson sourced the E-Type bought by Mr Shearman, an Australian citizen and former racing driver, from the US.
He added: ‘The financial impact has been a sore point as the cars he was buying would have been renovated. He was out of pocket by at least £150,000.’
The court heard another client, who had bought nine Jaguars from Barbary Hill as an investment for his pension, paid £98,150 for one of the cars, only for Nicolson to sell it to a buyer in Portugal without permission.
A third client handed over a £50,000 deposit for the purchase and restoration of a classic Jaguar as a Christmas present, only to discover he was out of pocket when administrators notified him the firm had gone under.
Neil Sands, defending Nicolson, said the business began to suffer cash flow problems after Nicolson spent big on what he thought was a classic vehicle which turned out to have been ‘cut and shut’ from three different cars.
Mr Sands said a client then refused to pay for the car because it was ‘essentially worthless’.
He added: ‘The money has not gone on a luxury lifestyle. He lives in a rented house. He doesn’t have luxury foreign holidays, a speed boat or anything like that.’ Nicolson, 45, of Witham St Hughs, Lincolnshire, admitted two charges of theft and two charges of fraud. He was jailed for three years, seven months.
His benefit from crime was assessed at £409,146 but he was ruled to have no available assets and was ordered to pay a nominal sum of £1 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, meaning his victims will not receive any compensation.