Essex Landbanking Firms Shutdown

Essex Landbanking Firms Shutdown

10:19 AM, 21st December 2011, About 12 years ago

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Three more landbanking scams have been uncovered and moved into liquidation by the Company Investigations (CI) of the Insolvency Service. The three companies were found to be linked to 11 other landbanking scams that had already been shutdown.

Theydon Land Developments Limited, Emerging Property Partnership Limited and Franklin Knight Ltd had mis-sold plots in Essex to the public, with Theydon Land Developments Limited raising nearly £400,000 fromtwo plots of land they bought for £68,000.

Franklin Limited acted as the agent for some of the sales, and was being run by Miss Manjit Kaur Minhas, who was director at another landbanking firm already closed down. Their Annual Return was also 21 months overdue.

Mr Registrar Baister said: “The Secretary of State’s allegations are made out in that misleading and unfounded statements were made to induce people to purchase plots of land on the basis that the land being sold represented a good investment because of the likelihood of the land receiving planning permission for residential development and the resulting significant increase in its value whereas in fact, as is always the case in these sorts of cases, the chances are very unlikely of the land receiving planning permission. The land was phenomenally over stated in value and in one case the local authority went so far as to issue a warning about the company’s business. This would of itself be sufficient to wind up in the public interest”

Company Investigations Supervisor Chris Mayhew also commented on the case, saying: “It is appalling that unscrupulous land banking operators are continuing to prey on innocent members of the public and must be stopped. Our message to these crooks is quite a clear: we will investigate you and close you down”.


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