Three real estate sellers and a realtor have been wound up after being involved in the mis-selling of undeveloped land to investors.

Hounslow West London Limited, Surrey, (CRO No. 07813463) Complete Building Systems Limited, London, (CRO No. 05314110)  Rawtenstall CBS Limited, Surrey -  (CRO No. 07603670) and Evesham CBS Limited, Surrey - (CRO No. 07603747)  have been ordered into liquidation on the 18th December 2014 on grounds of public interest, according to the Insolvency Service.

The court found that these firms had being involved within a land banking scheme which misled the public to invest into overpriced plots of land, and the outfits managed to acquire £3.3 million in the process. Of this total, £1.4 million was paid to sales staff as commission.

Chris Mayhew, Company Investigations Supervisor at the Insolvency Service, was pleased with the court’s decision to wind up the rogue firms.

“Investors were bullied and lied to by these rogue companies and their representatives to persuade them to invest in plots of land of negligible value,” he said.

“Some investors were falsely told that unless they bought more plots their existing plots would not be developed and would become recreational plots such as flower beds or children’s play area and that they would then be charged maintenance by the local authority.”

“In some cases particularly vulnerable investors, some suffering some form of physical or mental disorder, were cynically targeted and ripped off,” Chris added.

Plots sold included:

-    Rawtenstall site – Initially acquired for £40,000 by a third party and divided into 165 plots
-    Evesham site – Purchased by a third party for £45,000 and segmented into 100 plots.

A number of other sites including Goffs Oak in Hertfordshire, Cross Keys in Norwich, Snakey Lane Feltham and Boal Quay, Kings Lynn.

These plots were sold to investors for £4,500 to £15,000. Mr Christopher Shipton, a registered Director of the four companies, was heard to have stated, the land could be “sold for whatever price you wanted”.

The grounds for winding up each company were due to objectionable trading practices/misleading and unfounded statements, failing to preserve or maintain accounting records, failing to exercise proper control of trading and risk of carrying on with unacceptable sales practices.

Chris Mayhew concluded: “The Insolvency Service will simply not allow such companies to fleece vulnerable and honest people and will investigate abuses and close down companies if they are found to be operating or about to operate, against the public interest.”