Century Property
Group Ltd, formerly Century Land Group Limited, has been ordered
into liquidation in the High Court on grounds of public interest
following an investigation by Company Investigations (CI) of the
Insolvency Service.
The company traded from Tower 42 building in the City of London
marketing plots of land for sale to the public as an investment
opportunity.
The investigation found that the company made exaggerated and
misleading claims regarding the investment potential of the land
and that investors were misled into believing that the plots they
were buying had serious development potential when, in fact, there
was no credible evidence to support the assertions made to investors.
The investigation uncovered that 225 plots had been mis-sold to
the public on at least ten separate sites raising over £2.6 million.
A further 3 sites have since been identified and in all around
£10 million has been raised from the public including one case
where a family invested £600,000.
The company was closed down on 18 August 2011 as a result of the
Service’s actions (see note 4 below).
Company Investigations Supervisor Chris Mayhew said:
“Unscrupulous land banking companies who target
vulnerable people, especially through cold calling, and persuade
them to invest in land at exaggerated prices are peddling the
myth of easy money and ruining lives.
“I would urge anyone who receives a call from an
unknown source asking them to part with money or information to
question it, take time to reflect and seek independent advice.
“Don’t be afraid to say no thank you: If a scheme
sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Not one of the land
banking companies we have investigated and wound up has seen a
profit for the investor.
“Indeed in one liquidation case being handled by
the Official Receiver he was advised the cost of obtaining a
professional valuation of the land in question would cost more
than the value of the land itself”.
Ends
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Notes to Editors
Century Property Group Ltd was incorporated as a private company
on 17 October 2008. It changed its name from Century Land Group
Limited on 6 April 2011. The registered office of the company was
formerly c/o Alexanders, Redhill Chambers, High Street, Redhill,
Surrey, RH1 1RJ.
The recorded directors of the company have been Mr Jan Maarten
Bogaerts (from incorporation to 16 April 2009) and Mr Stephen John
Wheeler (from 16 April 2009 to date). The company secretary from
incorporation to 16 April 2009 was Aspen Global Incorporations
Limited in Hong Kong. The secretary thereafter was Mr Wheeler.
The land marketed by the company was at 13 sites, namely Keston,
near Bromley, Kent; Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire; Balsall
Common, near Coventry; Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire; High
Halden, near Ashford, Kent; Colchester, Essex; Beningbrough, North
Yorkshire; and more recently at Flax Lane, Burscough, West
Lancashire; Chessington, Surrey; Mattishall, Norfolk; Burnley;
West Cheshunt, and Bridgewater, Somerset.
The petition to wind up the company on grounds of public
interest was presented on 9 August 2011 under the provisions of
section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986. On the application of the
Secretary of State the Official Receiver was appointed provisional
liquidator of the company on 18 August 2011 – see news release
“High Court orders closure of Century Property Group Ltd” issued
on 25 August 2011.
The petition was presented following confidential enquiries
carried out by Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency
Service, under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended.
The grounds for winding up the company were its lack of
commercial probity, lack of transparency and/or improper diversion
of company funds, failure to keep or deliver up proper accounting
records and failure to co-operate with the investigation.
In ordering the company into liquidation on 4 April 2012 Ms
Registrar Barber commented that this case had all the hallmarks of
what is now known in these Courts as a ‘classic land banking
business’ adding:
“This is the petition of the Secretary of State presented on 9
August 2011 seeking to wind up the company in the public interest.
On the Secretary of State’s application the Official Receiver was
appointed provisional liquidator of the company by Mr Justice
Floyd on 18 August 2011. Initially the company indicated an intent
to contest the winding up and directions were given for the filing
of further evidence and for the matter to be adjourned to a Judge
for a contested trial. Once this written evidence was closed,
including a damning statement in reply on behalf of the Secretary
of State, the company through its solicitors confirmed that the
company no longer wished to oppose the winding up action. The
matter now comes on before me for uncontested disposal. It is
against this backdrop that the Secretary of State says that the
company should be wound up as it operated a land banking business
selling small plots of land for investment at highly inflated
prices to the public. The winding up grounds relied upon are as
follow: Firstly, lack of commercial probity; secondly lack of
transparency and/or improper diversion of company funds; I should
pause here to say that Mr Caddick QC clarified this ground to some
extent by conceding that the reference to lack of transparency is
reduced to the lack of transparency as regards the lack of
documentation to fully explain payments to and from Aspen and
Supracorp, Mr Bogaerts’ Hong Kong companies, and the use of Mr
Wheeler’s merchant service facility to receive credit card
payments from investors. If the matter had proceeded to trial with
cross examination there might well have been a finding that
company funds had been improperly diverted, but without this I am
unable to find that this is so. The third ground relied upon is
failure to keep or deliver up proper accounting records and
fourthly, failure to co-operate with the investigation. On the
evidence before me, which is uncontested, I am satisfied that each
of the four grounds is made out, albeit on the caveat that as
regards the second ground, it is the first of the two limbs that
is made out, namely its overall dealings and transactions. Mr
Caddick QC rightly conceded that a finding of diversion of funds
could not be made. There are numerous examples of payments out in
favour of third parties that have not been properly documented or
vouched. I will confine myself therefore to the first limb. I am
fully satisfied that it is in the public interest that this
company be wound up on grounds of public interest and I do so
order.”
Public interest winding up action has now been taken against
over 60 land banking companies, some connected, and others not,
that between them have raised over £40 million from the public –
see News Release issued on 19 October 2011 “Landbanking – from
Insolvency Service”.
Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, carries
out confidential enquiries on behalf of the Secretary of State for
Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS).
The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime
investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual
insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to
establish why they became insolvent. The Service also authorises
and regulates the insolvency profession; deals with
disqualification of directors in corporate failures; assesses and
pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer
cannot or will not pay employees; provides banking and investment
services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds; and advises
ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and
practice. Further information about the work of The Insolvency
Service is available from http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency
All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company
should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit ,
21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3QW Telephone: 020 7637 1110
Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Media enquiries should be directed to:
Kathryn Montague, Media Relations Manager, Telephone 020 7596
7674 or Ade Daramy, Press Officer on 020 7596 6187
Contacts:
Ade Daramy
Phone: 020 7596 6187
ade.daramy@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk