A group of companies have been put into liquidation after scamming investors out of £2.4mn.
The Sentor group, including Sentor Solutions Commercial, Fabcourt Developments, Sentor Solutions Advisory and Sentor Solutions (the latter two of which had changed their names to Hall Contracting Services and Clarkson Murphy Partners) have all been wound up by the High Court.
Between them, the companies took over £2mn and $500,000 (£432,000) from investors for a scam that offered fixed rate investment products known as convertible loan notes.
The companies fraudulently claimed these products were government-backed and covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and offered a high monthly or quarterly interest rate for between two and three years.
The investigation by the Insolvency Service found that investors in the schemes offered by the companies, called Sampson Property Developments and Fabcourt Developments, were paid out a handful of monthly interest payments on their investments before the companies went silent and left them “substantially out of pocket”.
The properties advertised were owned by unrelated entities and videos promoting the investment schemes had been cloned.
The official receiver has been appointed liquidator of the companies.
Fabcourt Developments was the successor to Sampson Property Developments, previously known as Texmoore Limited, which had operated a similar scam until it was entered into compulsory liquidation in March this year following a petition from creditors.
Chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, Edna Okhiria, said it is “undeniably” in the public interest for these companies to be prevented from continuing to trade, enabling the official receiver to carry out further investigations.
“These companies operated a fraudulent scheme whereby they mislead the public, falsely claiming that the Texmoore and Fabcourt investment schemes were regulated to provide the veneer that funds invested were protected when in fact they were not.
“These claims induced investors to invest substantial sums...the companies then failed to make more than a few monthly interest payments, leaving investors substantially out of pocket.”
sally.hickey@ft.com
