Pensioners are being promised returns of 20pc from an eco village in Norway. Here’s the truth . . .

WOULD YOU INVEST £15,000 IN THIS FOREST?

‘Be very wary of investments that are unregulated’

THE advert for the Convent in the Hills sounds appealing: ‘A new exclusive eco village development investment o pportunity providing homes in Norway.’ A picture shows a quaint little Scandinavian village. The marketing material outlines how planning permission has been granted for 212 plots to form the village that will incorporate The Convent development of 30 eco homes.

Investors need to put down a minimum of £15,000, for which they’ll get shares in a UK company, which owns this 3,500-acre plot.

For their cash, investors are promised a 20 pc profit within a year. The venture is described as ‘secure’ and ‘asset-backed’. So what is the truth? Money Mail went to find out. HARALD the taxi driver has lived in this part of southern Norway all his life and is an expert on local customs. But even he has no idea how to find Convent in the Hills — a property development into which British savers are being encouraged to plough their money, 32 miles from the sleepy port city of Kristiansand.

Like me, he’d like to know why anyone would be urged to invest in this desolate spot — a three-hour train journey through fjords and mountains from the next nearest major city of Stavanger. It’s a place so remote that many communities still speak their own dialect. It’s hard to imagine anyone selling investments in this property development has visited this part of Norway.

The road from Kristiansand to where Convent in the Hills is supposed to be is dotted with signs warning of crossing elk. Occasionally, you see tiny settlements of traditional wooden houses. As we pass two hamlets, Harald quips: ‘We call that one America and that one Australia. It’s a joke because they are so far from anywhere.’ After 45 minutes, Harald thinks we’ve arrived and pulls over by a small, unmade road. There is no sign indicating whether this is the right place. A dirt track disappears into a deep forest.

Just ahead we spot another hamlet, so head towards it. There are around a dozen wooden houses and a little chapel. I knock on some doors, but no one answers.

A woman is gardening in the front of one house. I ask if she knows about Convent in the Hills and where it is going to be built.

She waves towards a clump of trees back towards the side road we’ve come from and says the project has been well received by neighbours.

‘But now I hear it has been delayed,’ she adds.

I head back to the thick forest. After walking for a few minutes, there’s a clearing — this is Convent in the Hills. Some trees have been chopped down and there are pools of icy water between the stumps. There are no workmen, tools or machinery.

It looks as if there is a long way to go before building work even starts, let alone finishes.

Norwegian house prices have climbed by 85 pc over the past decade, but the country’s financial regulator recently warned of a bubble.

An architecture firm that initially drew up plans for the site says it stopped work on the project before last Christmas. And a local newspaper reports that the development has been postponed.

However, the owners of Convent in the Hills say work was always planned to start in 2015 and should commence in the autumn. But that has not stopped the investment being sold to British savers.

None of this information appears on marketing material for Convent in the Hills. A warning says that this scheme i s not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority — which means that if it goes bust, consumers are left unprotected. THE Convent in the Hills is one of a number of unauthorised investments being sold to older savers as the Pensions Revolution gets under way.

Others include parking spaces at airports, derelict German properties, investments in loans for second-hand cars and a Cotswolds boutique hotel.

All promise enticing profits to those willing to hand over some of their life savings.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at investment company Hargreaves Lansdown, says: ‘On the face of it, these sorts of investments don’t seem the sort of places where people should be investing their retirement savings. Do you want to gamble your nest egg on something so niche?

‘You should always think twice before taking money out of your pension and be mindful of the consequences.

‘If you are looking to invest, be very, very wary about investing in unregulated investments. You have no protection if things go wrong.’

The British couple behind the Convent in the Hills project, Matthew and Charlotte Roberts, often stay in a wooden house close to the proposed site. No one answers the door of the single-storey cabin when I call.

The couple run a luxury hotel in Woodchester, Gloucestershire, also called The Convent, which has been touted as an i nvestment opportunity. The hotel is converted from a former 19th-century convent, which they bought in 2013. The building’s price tag at the time was £ 1.7 million, according to l ocal newspaper reports.

Previously belonging to nuns from the order of the Poor Clares, it now has a spa, nightclub and restaurant. Rooms start at £180 a night.

It was backed through crowd funding, where the costs of the development was r ai s ed f r om contributions from a large number of people. They are paid a return. So far, 185 have invested in The Convent.

Mr Roberts, 44, was once a business partner of Neil Morrissey, the star of Nineties comedy Men Behaving Badly. Last September, Mr Roberts was declared bankrupt — until this is discharged, he will be barred from being a company director in the UK.

Mrs Roberts, 42, is the director of three companies called The Convent in the Hills Limited, The Convent in the Hills Holding Limited and The Convent in the Hills 2 Limited.

A fourth company, The Convent Hills AS, has been listed as a company in Norway since last August.

Mr and Mrs Roberts are named on the documents.

The couple told Money Mail that Mrs Roberts owns and runs The Convent in the Hills development and has a team of advisers. Mr Roberts is employed in the business using his ‘extensive hotelier experience’. They say that his bankrupt status is irrelevant to the Convent in the Hills opportunity.

Investments in the Convent in the Hills project, and previously The Convent, are sold by a company called Investment Opportunities.

When Money Mail first looked at its website, it said: ‘Pension Freedom Day from April 6, 2015. Escape from poor performance and reinvest your pension into a high performance UK i nvestment opportunity offering annual returns of up to 20 pc.

‘The new rules mean savers will be able to withdraw any amount of funds from their pension at any time from the age of 55.

‘As many traditional pension funds

have performed so poorly over past years, many pension savers have lised that withdrawing funds from their pension to reinvest into investments, which can offer far higher returns, may be a more prudent approach in planning for your future.’ he website suggests investors should contact a financial adviser if they are unsure about their options.

It also tells them to fill in a form help them get started.

In small print at the very bottom of its website, Investment Opportunities warns that it is not authorised andd regulated by the Financial conduct Authority. As a result, savers will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Among the other investments the firm is touting is the opportunity to push money into a ‘ pioneering, innovative car finance company’. This investment promises a return 15 pc a year over three years and 12pc a year over 18 months. The idea is that investors are helping to provide high- cost loans to the buyers of second-hand cars — and often those who would be denied credit elsewhere.

Another option offered to investors is in a fund that buys buildings in German cities, such as Hanover, Stuttgart and Leipzig. It then sells them to local people at a profit.

Your money is invested over a five-year term and you are promised a minimum rate of return of 10 pc every year.

Marketing material for the fund says: ‘The German government is eager to have l i sted buildings, which are often in a derelict condition, refurbished at no expense to the exchequer.’

There are also student property investments, promising 8 pc minimum returns over two years.

This is aimed at tapping into the high demand for luxury student flats mainly for foreign students, but also for British ones. Future developments the firm plans include accommodation in cities such as Exeter, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff, Nottingham and London.

None of these investments are regulated by City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority.

Investment Opportunities has described itself as a ‘ marketing affiliate’ of a company called International Commercial Investments.

This firm advertises the same deals as Investment Opportunities and describes itself as ‘ Low Risk Alternative Investment Consultants’.

There is a warning that the site is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

International Commercial Investments and Investment Opportunities have the same address in Berkeley Square in London’s Mayfair, an area known as ‘hedge fund alley’. Dozens of large financial firms are based in this glass-fronted building.

But International Commercial Investments is based on a floor owned by a service firm called Regus, which rents out office space.

International Commercial Investments and Investment Opportunities are run by 55-year-old Christopher Cully.

He also founded a company called Dilitas. It promises to help solve the security problems of companies and individuals through its range of services. These i nclude private i nvestigations, surveillance and c l ose protection, as well as fraud investigations.

An internet profile of Mr Cully says he served as a policeman between 1978 and 1985, including a spell with Special Branch at Scotland Yard.

Following his police career, Mr Cully Barren: A picture taken by Money Mail of the eco village’s planned site. Inset left: Chris Cully and (above) Matthew Roberts worked for several major companies specialising in security, before setting up his own firms.

He also says he holds a certificate in weapons competency. In another online profile, Mr Cully describes how he is an authorised oarsman on the Queen’s barge Gloriana.

Within hours of being contacted by Money Mail, Investment Opportunities removed all mentions of Pensions Freedoms from its website. It later removed the reference to International Commercial Investments.

Mr Cully told us the Investment Opportunities website was used to generate customer leads and was only f or high net worth and sophisticated investors who were fully aware of the risk at all times.

He said the firm did not ‘target or encourage transfer of pensions’ and that no investor had planned to use their pension in this way.

‘The procedures we have in place do not allow this,’ he said.

‘Previous reference on the website to pensions freedoms was to the hot topic in investments, something that has occupied voluminous pages of print and the internet.’

Matthew and Charlotte Roberts told Money Mail they were unaware their projects were being marketed to pensioners.

They said the schemes were aimed only at high net worth individuals and sophisticated investors, and marketed by eight different firms. All these businesses had passed a ‘rigorous vetting process’.

In a statement, they said: ‘ There will be no cold calling or similar approach from any of the firms that The Convent use. There never will be.

‘All investments carry an element of risk, but we reiterate at no point have we encouraged i nvestors to use retirement savings.’

They also tout high-cost loans for second-hand cars