MBI and Northern Powerhouse Developments

Malthusian

eskbanker wrote: »

It's almost as if the forum team are a bunch of jumped-up little {Edited by Forum Team} who don't know their {Edited by Forum Team} from their {Edited by Forum Team}

[belated] I think that is a little unfair on the forum team (even if it's in jest and well delivered). They go above and beyond with all this {Edited by Forum Team} stuff, even if it is eccentric at times. It would be much easier just to delete the threads entirely.

Thanks to MSE standing their ground as best they can, without ending up having to defend somebody else's allegation in a libel case (would you be happy to be sued for something I said, and to defend it in court without any of the evidence that I had to back up my allegation, if any?) a lot of threads about dodgy investments have stayed up when other forums would have deleted them, and potentially saved a lot of people from losing their money.

eskbanker

Malthusian wrote: »

[belated] I think that is a little unfair on the forum team (even if it's in jest and well delivered). They go above and beyond with all this {Edited by Forum Team} stuff, even if it is eccentric at times. It would be much easier just to delete the threads entirely.

Thanks to MSE standing their ground as best they can, without ending up having to defend somebody else's allegation in a libel case (would you be happy to be sued for something I said, and to defend it in court without any of the evidence that I had to back up my allegation, if any?) a lot of threads about dodgy investments have stayed up when other forums would have deleted them, and potentially saved a lot of people from losing their money.

Agreed - as you say, it was in jest. It's a fine line - the site inevitably has to err on the side of caution but the way it's handled does seem OTT sometimes, the context to last week's posts was this thread being removed in its entirety and OP being baffled and concerned by this, in the understandable belief that its removal was permanent.

The forum team ultimately have to police it within the confines of the rules set at higher pay grades and many do find it strange that repetition of public domain information is sometimes wiped, but to be honest I was fully expecting my jokey post to be deleted too, so they're not as trigger-happy as they sometimes may seem!

Debbin

you were so right malthusian and i was so wrong.
we just hope that we and all the other "investors" get something (substantial?) back now they are uncovering all the secret bank accounts. There is an interesting thread on jac o'the north including a must read post from someone who claims to be a junior employee at npd. He or she talks of frenetic activity at the headquarters in advance of the "raid".
We await the report at the end of august when hopefully there will be some clarity.

Malthusian

Debbin wrote: »

you were so right malthusian and i was so wrong.

Well I sincerely wish I wasn't. All credit to you for your honesty. Most people in your position just slink away and nurse their losses.

Especially as my reply to you 15 months ago was treading a fine line between correcting your misapprehension as to what due diligence means, and taking the mick out of you for not knowing what due diligence means. Apologies if I have added any insult to injury.

Were you encouraged to make that post by NPD? Because clearly you aren't a paid shill, but now that we know that, it is very odd that someone from NPD instantly used the account they registered on MSE eight months before to give you a "thanks". It is odd because they would either have to know in advance that you were making it, or regularly monitor an almost dead thread for a period of eight months, to see your comment and "thanks" it.

we just hope that we and all the other "investors" get something (substantial?) back now they are uncovering all the secret bank accounts.

Standard suggestion in your position is to write the money off and treat anything recovered as a bonus.

There may be physical properties involved (Welsh hotels) but even if those are recovered and sold, they may not go very far across all the investors. It is already clear from the jac o'the north blog that investors collectively paid far, far more for their rooms than the hotels were worth. And the administrators' fees come out first and will be very substantial.

There is an interesting thread on jac o'the north including a must read post from someone who claims to be a junior employee at npd. He or she talks of frenetic activity at the headquarters in advance of the "raid".

That comment in full to save people digging it out:

Current Insider

If only you knew what it was like in the office in the week leading upto the interim managers taking over…. I could explain more but for now just a bit

Let me just say shredders and mysterious dissapearances of office equipment,mainly pcs and free standing servers.

All junior staff at hq have been sent home and been told they will be paid although this is highly doubtful, last months salary received ok but likely this month not , not sure about hotels and lower end staff.

In fairness Gavin is an immensely likeable guy away from this, sadly thats how most people fell for all this.. i know he just became too greedy mainly due to Charlie his plastic botox wife, horrible woman who never set foot in any office i assure you. Horrible fake woman who thinks shes a cut above anyone else including some unpaid investors who she once exclaimed were “Feral Peasants” and yes this is on tape.

All i will say is they need to look deeper at the Shay farm connection and a lot more could become so much clearer…. lets just say Jac, that you were exceptionally close in your comments on this very point earlier,if they investigate deepy enough they should be able to confirm this connection and the real truth.

I could post more about the inner workings of elland hq but i fear for my identity being known, and NOT because of Gavin finding out because he is a big cuddly bear in reality and actually would not hurt a fly, its his sales guy B, that one us a nasty piece of work, cannot explain too much about him because his convictions are now “spent” if you get me Jac

Debbin

I did the response on my own initiative. At the time I thought you were being very unfair so I told one of the girls at the head office that I had spoken up for them.
Your reply was a little sharp but hopefully it would at least have neutralised my comments which with glorious hindsight were so misjudged.
Anyway we need to move on. We should all have success with our investments in future & learn from our mistakes.

ashpan

Olly_Smith wrote: »

Similarly not holding my breath either, I hope you get some of your funds back as well, I was told something similar to you, no idea what it all means, the agent that sold me the investment have since removed their advertising on all NPD products, but they are all showing in their news stories, seems very strange, almost like they are trying to cover it all up, they wont call me back when I leave messages and nor replying to emails.

Did you purchase from an agent yourself?

No i went direct to MBI, im currently awaiting advice from my IFA - may take legal advice from a property specialist lawyer - dont want to throw good money after bad but if i have to spend a little more to get a % back it will be worth it!

rayvon100

I to have been let down by NPD, the agent (Select Portfolio) in Poole assured me that the hotel room i purchased from NPD was secure, and was backed up by sound business practice, and in any advent if things went wrong my investment was covered by an AXA policy taken out by NPD against bad business practice, I do wonder why the agent did not carry out “due diligence” on Gavin and NPD, Select Portfolio employee “Cheri” was adamant this was a good company and that our investment was safe, I do wonder if Select Portfolio should be made to refund the losses experienced by their clients, all correspondence i had with Select Portfolio (Cheri) i kept on email, any comments anyone.

eskbanker

rayvon100 wrote: »

I to have been let down by NPD, the agent (Select Portfolio) in Poole assured me that the hotel room i purchased from NPD was secure, and was backed up by sound business practice, and in any advent if things went wrong my investment was covered by an AXA policy taken out by NPD against bad business practice, I do wonder why the agent did not carry out “due diligence” on Gavin and NPD, Select Portfolio employee “Cheri” was adamant this was a good company and that our investment was safe, I do wonder if Select Portfolio should be made to refund the losses experienced by their clients, all correspondence i had with Select Portfolio (Cheri) i kept on email, any comments anyone.

No harm in following their complaints procedure (https://www.select-portfolio.co.uk/complaints-procedure) but as you'll see, the escalation route is to the Property Ombudsman rather than the Financial Ombudsman, as they're a property sales company rather than financial advisers, i.e. their activities aren't regulated by the FCA or protected by the FSCS.

They do claim "a strict and thorough due diligence program" so it would be revealing to obtain details of exactly what that consisted of for NPD, as well as the scope of the insurance policy they referred to....

ashpan

The administrators in this sorry business Duff and Phelps have now contacted as many investors as they have contact details with an initial report into their findings which precedes a court appearance by GW this month. ADMIN this is in the public domain and not my opinion or heresay. They have taken control of the companies in which GW in involved and are attempting to gain control of his assets - apparently he has a penchant for fast cars and luxury holidays and has remodelled his home recently. The plan seems to be to sell all of the hotels, make an insurance claim and hopefully recover some money for investors. I personally was going to use my money to retire next year as i am a WASPI, so have been 'stung' twice! If there are any investors out there who have not been in touch with D & P they need all the evidence they can get about the workings of these companies.

npd_investor

Let's not forget about the expensive watches ashpan (also mentioned in the report). What really gets us raging here is the fact that GW transferred substantial sums of money from the NPD bank account to his personal accounts just prior to Duff and Phelps taking control of his affairs. How low can you go ? One can just hope that they can still recover some funds from these crooks (selling agents included) and return to the investors.