The Insolvency Service has disqualified a company director who ran an extensive landbanking scam through his three companies that misled members of the public into parting with at least £1.7m for small plots of land of little value.
Eren Metcalfe, formerly known as Eren Cemal Ibrahim, was the sole director of Natural Wealth Solutions Ltd, Proctor Capital Ltd and Land Security Management Ltd.
The companies’ salespeople represented the plots of land that they marketed as being suitable for development and having a realistic prospect of obtaining planning permission.
However, the land sold to customers had little, if any, value for development purposes and was sold at mark ups of between 18 and 63 times the purchase price per acre.
None of the land had planning permission, or little prospect of obtaining it, and neither Mr Metcalfe nor the staff had any expertise in assessing land.
The three companies were wound up in the public interest by the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, after an investigation was carried out following complaints by members of the public.
Mr Metcalfe has also been disqualified from being a company director for 14 years, starting on 21 November.
Paul Titherington, official receiver at the Insolvency Service’s public interest unit, said that these companies brought misery to unsuspecting members of the public, who were persuaded to part with their savings in exchange for virtually worthless plots of land.
“In over seven years of dealing with land banking scams I have not seen a single piece of land that has been sold in this way actually go on to obtain planning permission. Every single customer has lost their money in what was a horrendous investment.”
The investigation also uncovered several deficiencies in the books and records of all the companies.
Separately, the Insolvency Service also disqualified Nicholas Lomax, a director of Wimbledon-based The Wine Shop UK Ltd, for involving the company in a scheme to induce members of the public to invest in fine wines with no provision to supply the wine.
He has been disqualified for 11 years from 11 November, following investigations by a specialist team of the Insolvency Service, whose involvement commenced with the winding up of the company, for debts owed to an investor.
Between 15 April 2011 and 29 October 2012, the company ‘sold’ fine wines as an investment and provided receipts and confirmation of ownership documents to investors without actually purchasing the wines.
Mr Titherington explained that the scheme abused the time differential involved in purchase and supply of de primeur fine wines, allowing The Wine Shop to take investors money and not purchase the product.
The petition to wind up the company was presented by Bircham Dyson Bell LLP in respect of a debt of £3,603.89 for a default judgement debt. The winding up order was made against The Wine Shop on 29 October 2012 on a creditor’s petition.
peter.walker@ft.com
