IT’S FARRCICAL
Conman says he’ll pay back customers and investors.. but emails bounce back
A conman accused of leaving customers £ 100,000 out of pocket has claimed he will personally repay everyone after his latest scam was exposed by the Sunday Mail.
Matthew Farr, 37, who was jailed for a solar panel scheme in which he used the deposits of people in Scotland for gambling and luxury living,g, is at the centre of new rip-off claims at his English car repair firm.
The email address he gave to those who want their cash back doesn’t appear to exist.
Farr, from Glasgow, who modelled himself on Jordan Belfort, the fraudster in hitt film The Wolf of Wall Street,, vowed to “personally repay allll customers and investors” of Masco Detailing Ltd.
On Masco’s site, he wrote: “Living the life of luxury off of other people’s money couldn’t be further from the truth and I estimate that the number of customers left out of pocket equates to less than 0.1 per cent of all customers serviced by Masco.
“Despite this, I do not wish to see anyone out of pocket due to Masco so my intention is to personally repay all customers and investors who lost money due to the company going out of business from my future earnings.”
But victims of the conman said their emails had bounced. We told last week how Farr, who also uses the name Matthew Scott, has been told to spend a week in jail after failing to appear in court.
That came after a customer launched a civil action against him over a payment of £3450 to Masco for work on his car in
■ Jennifer Hyland
August 2021 which was allegedly never carried out or refunded. He was ordered to pay the man £ 4078.28 last March.
Farr did not pay and failed to appear at Nuneaton County Court in Warwickshire over the debt. He was found in contempt of court in December and a warrant was issued.
After hearing of Farr’s promise, the victim emailed the firm via the address provided to request a rerefund. But it bounced back saysaying the host or domain name wawas “not found”.
ThThe 44-year-old victim said: “I’m not surprised. It’s a conman cconconning people all over again.” A former F1 mechanic also contactedco the email address to inquireinq about a refund on the £10,0001 he invested and lost but receivedrec a bounce-back email.
MMasco Detailing was formed in JulyJ 2020 with Farr, under the namena Scott, as sole director. He persuadedpe scores of people to investinv in it, promising lucrative returnsre but they claim he vanished after taking their cash.
Farr, who lives in Leamington Spa, is also accused by customers of taking money upfront for jobs not done.
We spoke to a man who invested more than £75,000 in the firm while another said he handed over £20,000. None of the investors we spoke to saw a return.
When contacted by the Sunday Mail over the bounce-back emails, Farr blamed a technical issue. He said he had contacted Microsoft who had resolved the problem.
However, when customers emailed again and they failed to be delivered, he blamed a spelling error in the email address on the website.