Trading Standards/reclaiming money from a company

zaza14

Hiya,

I'm so sorry if this is the wrong category. I'm really struggling to figure out where this post should go-I can't see any that's befitting.

I had a question to ask about the following:

My aunty went to an expo on Park Lane for investing in land/property abroad. At the time, she made a verbal agreement for a particular piece of land with a company that she'd like to invest in. I believe she went home and paid a £1000 deposit online, but had to pay an additional £5000-£10,000 for the plot/land, which she didn't do at the time. No contract was signed here.

She went into this company's office on Saville Row a week or so later to give gold bars as the remaining deposit, and she was told that the initial plot/land she wanted/paid a deposit for, had been reserved by someone else, and then offered her a different piece of land. She wasn't too happy with this, but she agreed. Here she signed and left her gold.

She was asked to come in again, and this time, again was told that the plot/land number had changed, and to sign new forms.

By this point, my aunty was very annoyed and concerned, as it was the second time they'd changed this, and this was particularly concerning as she'd signed a contract with plot numbers, and she was thinking that if the signed contract had land reserved/given to someone else, of what standing was this contract?

Anyway, upon investigation, it turns out, this company, which seems very legitimate, especially as they had their office in Mayfair etc, is fraudulent, and my aunty's had friends that have invested with this company, who never saw their money or profits.

So under a ruse, she went back to them asking for her gold back, so that she could invest in a commercial land space, instead of a residential land space, and again, she was told that they could rearrange someone else's land to give to her.

So now what's outstanding is her £1000 deposit. She wrote an email requesting this back, due to the situation as above, and they company called back saying no, especially as she signed a contract.

Question: How, if at all, can she get her money back?