Lapland New Forest Scam. How to get money back...

GomerPyle

I'm told that what I'm looking for is not on the advertising literature which is a shame.

There have been reports on different sites that some people were directed to send cheques to an address in Onslow Road, which is neither the registered address of the company nor the proprietor. This is significant as it is the address of the son of the proprietor, Vic Mears, and he is a bankrupt.

I have been told that this address does not appear on the leaflet and am now wondering whether it may have been on an earlier version of the LNF Ltd website. It would be useful to have some evidence of this, if it exist, but I don't know that any early versions of the website have been kept anywhere.

If anyone has one can they let me know please.

leonle

I also made the same stupid mistake.Waste of money.

GomerPyle

Rereading the person's comment who said he paid the money to the Onslow Road address it must have come from an advertising leaflet, not the leaflet that comes with the tickets, so if anyone has one, please look to see what address you are directed to send cheques to. It would be significant.

I can't find anything on the internet.

EdnaCloud

leonle wrote: »

I also made the same stupid mistake.Waste of money.

leonle - welcome, there are many people here who will try to help albeit a desperately bad situation.

When you say the 'same mistake' (I exclude 'stupid', because it wasn't, it was unfortunate but don't kick yourself, it's not your fault!) do you mean that you paid by cheque or booked to go to this ill-begotten devil child of an event?

If by cheque it would be really useful to know where that was sent, who it was made payable to and how you got the information as to the above.

I am sorry to say the episode is rapidly moving to a point where our efforts may make no difference, but every little bit of evidence that can be found can add to the artillery of others on this forum to fire at the responsible parties, so please share your experiences or PM them to GomerPyle if you are shy about saying too much on the public forum.

Please do help with a record of your experiences regarding this shameless scam.

rgds
Edna

EdnaCloud

GomerPyle wrote: »

Rereading the person's comment who said he paid the money to the Onslow Road address it must have come from an advertising leaflet, not the leaflet that comes with the tickets, so if anyone has one, please look to see what address you are directed to send cheques to. It would be significant.

I can't find anything on the internet.

Gomer, the person may have phoned the telephone number on the leaflet, it can be seen in the photo you pointed out in a previous post. (I really doubt these scammers would have printed a number of different versions, and even less would have the ability to judiciously distribute them to the corresponding parties according to their payment method) The person(s) concerned may then have been given verbal instruction - so that is an avenue I am investigating.

GomerPyle

You could be right as I know that some were told verbally to go to the Onslow Road address, but one did say that they took it from the leaflet.

You could be right, but it's a matter worth investigating, and if I have to visit local travel agents to track one down, I'll do it.

It would put a very different perspective on things if there is tangible evidence.

It's illegal under New Jersey law. :rotfl: Only teasing.

Finally found a copy online

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/3080003220_32c54df00c_o.jpg

People must have received the direction about where to send the cheque after ringing the number quoted.

GomerPyle

Well - the show is almost over, and it appears likely that the perpetrators will get away mostly unscathed.

Unfortunately no one in a bank gets credit for making correct decisions. It is all down to selling products, and a bank can even make money out of bad lending decisions. An account manager will not get any credit for turning a customer away, but by making an introduction to a subsidiary, then he will get credit for that, and the bank believes that it can protect itself by the legal documents it obtains. This has been a particularly hideous example of an unsuitable customer with a dismal track record (criminal mostly) and a plan that a child would find preposterous.

The bank may not have broken any laws, though to judge from reports of money being routed through most unsuitable parties, that may never be known. Maybe it isn't a bank's job to concern itself with the intent of its customers, but at the end of the day, it's bad business to deal with disreputable characters. They damage your reputation and involve you in 'road crash' situations that wipe out any profit you make.

The depressing things is that this is the way that banks got into the situation where we now own significant shareholdings in them. If they keep repeating the same tricks, there isn't a back up plan.

I can only hope that Brighton is some specially unfortunate part of the country, cursed by the effect of the Mears family, as Staffs County Council dismissed the same event with barely an effort. I would hope that any profit the Mears brood may have made from this debacle, would have to last them a long time, as the whole country is now wise to them.

I'll pass Brighton by in future, alert people if I see a Mears extravaganza in formation, and luckily I don't bank with RBS.

whitewing

In today's Portsmouth news is the delightful story of Lloyds refusing a credit card chargeback:

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/No-refund-for-Lapland-bill.4864170.jp

And more cheerful news (not) from the echo

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4037941.Lapland_creditors_face_money_blow/

______________________________________________________________

ATTENTION PLEASE! Added mid-Jan 2009: Just as a reminder, the latest Lapland New Forest Refund Guide is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17633351#post17633351

EdnaCloud

whitewing wrote: »

**snip**
And more cheerful news (not) from the echo

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4037941.Lapland_creditors_face_money_blow/

Yet more sighs.
Yet again bucolic journalism obfuscates the issues.
Dorset TS appears to be misleading once again.
QUOTE
Head of Dorset trading standards Ivan Hancock said: “Creditors should not have high hopes. When a company goes into liquidation it’s because there’s not much money in the pot.”
UNQUOTE
Now assuming that is what was actually said, it just isn't true. How a local TS Officer can make a value judgment about every single liquidation baffles me.

One cannot say 'how much is in the pot' because Streamline are not revealing how much money they have frozen, nor do we know what (if any) other assets will be uncovered by a liquidator. The article even goes on to say:

QUOTE
The money Lapland was generating from online sales was frozen by the merchant bank Streamline.
Streamline could not comment on whether the money would be passed to Grant Thornton.
UNQUOTE

There are also other unnecessary, inflammatory remarks in this article, in my humble opinion.I could rant on but I'm just so fed up with this irresponsible and confusing journalism that I'm getting angry, so I will take my anger out on the press concerned.

GomerPyle

Frankly it appears that Brighton inhabits some lawless part of the UK where anything goes. Personally I'll detour round it if I'm ever in the vicinity.

The local population have a vote and should use it if they want a council that works, and officials who will protect them. The Staffs Council took no nonsense and got every customer a refund (according to reports) when the same stunt was attempted in their jurisdiction.

This whole situation just baffles and bemuses me. The Mears clan appear to have found a perfect environment in which to flourish.