Compensation? My buy-to-lets are doing fine!

J.Q. writes: I was contacted out of the blue by a convincing Kate Masters of Delta Litigation in Spain. She claimed to be contacting clients of Instant Access Properties Limited and said she could get me compensation in connection with buy-to-let properties I purchased on IAP’s recommendation. In a series of emails, Masters said she could get me £39,639 for ‘illegal misrepresentation’ and ‘overinflated rental return forecasts’. But I would have to pay £875 for ‘notary and court fees’ which I would get back with the compensation in about a year. In fact, the buy-to-let flats purchased on IAP’s recommendations have performed well.

DELTA Litigation clearly thought you would be dazzled at the prospect of £39,639 and would immediately fork out £875 in up-front fees. I doubt if it crossed anyone’s mind that although Instant Access Properties Limited is now in liquidation, you might actually have been happy with the flats you bought.

With this in mind I took a closer look at Delta Litigation and the questions began to pile up. Delta Litigation turned out to be a name used by a company called Litigation Services, based in Fuengirola, Spain. But when I checked Spanish company records, I found that Litigation Services describes itself as a construction firm.

The Delta Litigation website says it provides legal services, but in another contradiction, when it registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a collector of personal data, it told them it was a marketing and advertising agency. Delta proudly displays the Office’s logo on its website, presumably as a sign it is legitimate. But the regulator told me: ‘We do not authorise the use of our logo to any organisation, unless one of our employees is at an event and the logo is used next to the speaker’s profile.’

That raises a big question mark over the person behind the Delta website. It was set up by Roger James, who gave an address in Crewe, Cheshire, but seems to spend a fair bit of time in Spain.

I have come across Mr James before. In 2009 and 2010 I warned against a trio of connected compensation claims companies: Glovista Red, European Mediation and Earlstream Consultants. All were ripoffs, promising the earth, charging up-front fees and then delivering nothing. All used a Manchester address, but the strings were pulled from Spain. In the wake of The Mail on Sunday’s warnings, all three were shut down by the High Court.

The man behind Glovista Red and Earlstream Consultants was Roger James. He also admitted he carried out marketing work for the third company, European Mediation. Now he is linked closely to Delta Litigation.

Litigation Services told me it had described itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office as a marketing business because that is what Delta Litigation does – though not what Litigation Services claims to do. It had ‘addressed’ the fact that Spanish records have it as a construction firm.

It insisted claims against Instant Access are ‘proceeding very well’, but offered no details about exactly how it was claiming against a company that has been in liquidation for years.

But crucially, Litigation Services admitted: ‘Mr James is employed by our company, occasionally, in a marketing capacity.’ Frankly, that would be enough to convince me that you should steer clear.