12-year ban for loan cheat

THE shadowy Dutch owner of a cheating loan broker has been banned from acting as the director of any British business for the next 12 years after he ripped off 50,000 customers by demanding up-front fees.

Jos Timmer, 37, controlled More Financial Limited, which used addresses in London, Basingstoke, Hampshire, and Cheadle in Cheshire. I warned in 2013 that the firm was falsely claiming it would arrange loans for a fee of £69, when all it did was forward customers’ details to genuine lenders or send them the names of credit companies and tell them to apply themselves.

Only 50 victims ever managed to obtain a loan. Timmer, who used the alias James Thompson, stayed behind the scenes. A friend, Elizabeth Rowe, registered as his company’s director. She was disqualified as a director for six years. Investigators from the Insolvency Service found that More Financial raked in several million pounds from would-be borrowers before the High Court ordered it closed a few months after my warning.

Timmer did not co-operate with investigators or hand over company records. Almost £1million was withdrawn from the business’s bank account shortly before it folded.