Grave fears for investors as cemetery stays empty
The Readers’ Champion Probes a world of scams and scandals
R.D.L.writes: In 2013, I was introduced by Creative Investors Ltd to an investment in Farnham Park Cemetery, Surrey, owned by Regent Memorial Ltd. Sales material suggested that a purchase of burial plots could be realised in four years at a profit of 60 per cent. I invested £27,750, but communication from the firm has all but ceased. As far as I can establish, no investor has been able to realise their investment by selling their burial plots. FARNHAM Park Cemetery is a cemetery with a difference – there is not a grave in sight.
Despite this, the investment scheme was actively marketed by a number of agents. Creative Investors advertised a ‘40 per cent ROI [return on investment] in 18 to 24 months’ and a ‘clear and secure investment strategy’. Another agency claimed: ‘You will receive within 24 to 36 months a minimum contracted ROI of 37.5 per cent.’ A third told its customers: ‘Investors will enjoy a 40 per cent contracted return.’
All that was said when investors were asked to part with their cash. The picture is now different. Regent Memorial has been offering plots at £995 apiece – a far cry from the £1,850 you paid and nowhere near the predicted value of £3,145.
The scheme’s appeal was based on what was said to be a shortage of burial land. So I asked one of Regent Memorial’s directors, Kamran Saleem, what had gone wrong.
He said the price had been cut to encourage sales, as ‘no one wants their loved one to be the first on a new, empty site’. He added: ‘The contract we hold with each and every plot holder does not give any guarantee of time frames. Whilst the brochures used did give indicative growth figures and return times, based on death rates and information available in the public domain, they all carried warnings.’
Those warnings stated that no matter what words had been used by sales agents, the figures were forecasts and not really guarantees.
Saleem emphasised his experience, telling me: ‘My involvement in the industry has been via my father, Mohammad Saleem Akhtar. He is chairman of the Sunni Confederation of Mosques in the Midlands.’
He also chairs the Birmingham mosque that runs the largest Muslim funeral service in the city, if not the country, Saleem told me.
As for the sales agents, Creative Investors no longer exists. Saleem insisted it still had ‘responsible individuals in place’ who kept investors informed, but when I asked whom I could speak to, he decided there had been ‘miscommunication’ and he was not in touch with anyone from the firm. He did not seem to know the boss, an Australian named Maggie Yuan Wei, and she did not respond when I invited her to comment.
Saleem rejected any suggestion his sales agents might have used false claims. They used a combination of real figures about death rates and cemeteries, and predicted inflation prices, he said. But the crunch point was that: ‘They disclaimed their documents and invited clients to do their own due diligence.’
In effect, the figures in the sales pitch were worthless. Saleem did admit that the time to produce the forecast gains was ‘grossly optimistically predicted by us and all other agencies and industry experts’.
Saleem tried to persuade me not to print a word of this as it would damage other business deals for him and the prospects of investors. Really? If there is a huge shortage of plots, I would have expected the publicity to lead to a queue of undertakers at the gates tomorrow morning. Unless, as Saleem hinted, at least part of the land may – he hopes – be pencilled in for housing development. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.