Comments can be sent to us at irnist23@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION
This Blog is dedicated to making public some of the business activities and methods of Liam Collins, David Bone Jr and their associates. In the spring of 2010, the present authors invested in Collins & Bone (C&B), who were offering an enticing 8-10% interest on the basis of buying houses for cash, renovating them and letting them out to students. We were assured that our money was secured against houses that they owned, including their own homes and the properties held by their associated company, Castle & Gatehouse (C&G). We have emails and brochures that confirm these details, as do others who invested on this same basis at around the same time. The idea worked for us for over a year, then in November 2011 they told us they were insolvent. They refused our every request for clear accounts, which led us to suspect wrongdoing. We began an investigation and then started this Blog. We found our suspicions confirmed: other investors had lost sometimes quite large amounts to C&B and its predecessor CBS, and all requests for repayment were adamantly refused. These people use and have used so many names that we found it necessary to compress them into CoBo (for Collins & Bone) and Coboco (for the whole bunch of them – there are quite a few!) Note that there is an index in the margin at the right hand side.

Sunday 1 January 2012

COLLINS & BONE, CBS AND ROLLOVER DEBT

Fellow investors have been contacting us. Some invested in Liam Collins’ and David Bone’s property schemes in 2008 and 2009 using the name CBS. In June 2009, CBS investors were told that the Company was in severe financial difficulty and that the only way they could save their capital was to increase their investment by 30%.  On this basis, more funds were placed in the CBS kitty. At the very same time, during the 2009, Liam Collins and David Bone were claiming in their literature:

‘The sales and revenue side of the company has grown from strength to strength, and we are now in a strong financial position, which in turn allows us to expand our own portfolio. We constantly strive to improve the mechanics of the investment vehicle, in order to insure CBS and our investors can continue to grow profitable portfolios in any market. Our business model has been refined and moulded to be able to accommodate market conditions. We have created a robust system where everything, from sourcing to lettings, plays a vital role in securing high yields. CBS offers a solid, experienced track record that has successfully navigated the difficult UK property market of the past few years and is moving on.’ (page 3, CBS Background Information)

Despite a welter of words and advertising hyperbole, CBS was ailing by the end of 2009 and went into liquidation in October 2010. Investors’ loans were simply transferred to Liam Collins’ and David Bone’s new business arrangement, Collins & Bone. As of this date, we don’t know whether anyone ever got their investment back.


NOW HERE'S THE POINT OF ALL THIS INVESTIGATION:

Our ongoing investigations into the Collins & Bone partners and their associates have revealed what appears to be  a scarcely believable pattern: a newly-formed company successfully draws in investment, but not long afterwards gets into difficulties and the investors lose their money. There is no proper explanation and investors are refused access to the accounts. Their loans are transferred to the new company. The partners then begin the process again. New investors are unaware of previous failures and debts. As noted below, Liam Collins is evidently adept at extracting money from unwary individuals but his partnership is evidently bereft of the other skills needed to run a successful property business.





No comments:

Post a Comment