‘Rescue’ crooks preying on victims of liquidation
Ms A.T. writes: I have £70,000 in investment bonds with Quinshaw Group, which you wrote about recently. When Quinshaw went into liquidation, I was told my money would be returned, and I was contacted by Christopher Sutton of Clarity Management Consultants Limited, based in Norfolk. He also said my money would be returned, but I have heard nothing from him since January.
LET me say right away that whoever contacted you was a fraudster, and not Christopher Sutton. This is no surprise.
As I reported two weeks ago, investors were being told about Quinshaw’s l i quidation many weeks before genuine liquidators took control.
This left a window of opportunity for crooks to contact investors and, even now, they are still offering rescue schemes that don’t exist. In contrast, Clarity Management Consultants does exist. Its registered office is a lovely old building in the shadow of Norwich Cathedral. But this is the premises of accountants M&A Partners, and Clarity itself ceased trading recently and is being shut down voluntarily by its owners.
I contacted Christopher Sutton’s wife Julie, who is a director of Clarity, and told her about the offer – supposedly from her husband – to recover money that had gone missing in Quinshaw.
She told me: ‘This does sound like a scam. It is nothing to do with us. We closed the company down, and we have never had anything to do with investments.’
Clarity’s accountants in Norwich backed this up. Ash Ali, of M&A Partners, said: ‘The company is in the process of closing.’
When I told him about Quinshaw’s missing millions, he added: ‘I have never heard of it. All the post relating to Clarity Management Consultants comes to me, and we have had nothing arrive.’
In a nutshell then, whoever has contacted you has stolen the identity of Christopher Sutton and his company. If you had taken the bait, you would have been asked for an up-front fee before the fake Sutton would release your £70,000. And any fee you transferred to the fraudster’s bank account would simply disappear.
How do I know this? Well, this is how so-called ‘recovery room’ scams work. And as if to confirm this, you told me that a few days ago you were contacted again, this time supposedly by Mark Edwards, the director of Better Escrow Limited, based in Belgravia in London.
His messages boast: ‘Mark Edwards is licensed to act as Insolvency Practitioner in the United Kingdom by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’.
And he told you: ‘As the escrow provider who currently holds Quinshaw clients’ funds, I feel it is essential that I inform you that the deadline is February 18 for claiming the amount that is owed.’
Fail to lodge your claim by last Thursday, and another creditor would get your money, he threatened.
Better Escrow does exist, and Mark Edwards is its director, but according to Companies House it is dormant and has never yet traded. It has no website, no email address and not even a telephone number.
You were contacted by just another fake. And the Government-run Insolvency Service does not list Edwards or his company as licensed practitioners, nor is anyone of that name and Belgravia address listed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
I suggested you should ask the fraudster how much he wanted before returning your £70,000.
You did so and were immediately told you had to pay about £2,000 for an ‘active trading licence’ – something which does not exist, but which recovery room crooks often use as an excuse for parting victims from their money.
I called the fake Edwards to ask how much he had made from this fresh fraud, but for some reason he was not happy to talk to me and hung up. His number is 07564 809606.
I expect this is a prepaid ‘burner’ phone, bought anonymously and soon to be ditched. But if anyone has details about who is using this number, do please let me know.
The police are already investigating the millions of pounds missing from Quinshaw, and I am sure they would be interested to learn how the fake follow-up cheats got access to the names, addresses and other details of Quinshaw’s investors.