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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.

Thursday 13 February 2014

LIAM COLLINS – THE LATEST HOT NEWS!

Readers may have been wondering what Liam Collins has been up to in the last few months. Here's an edited article from today's Scottish Sun (see text below):


Thursday, February 13, 2014 
By ROBERT McAULAY 

A BRAZEN BANKRUPT who ran up debts of a staggering £4.5million is out grasping on the streets — by posing for snaps as movie superhero IRON MAN. 

MULTI-MILLION pound bankrupt Liam Collins poses as movie superhero Iron Man to beg on the streets of Scotland’s biggest city — in a bid to raise cash for his wedding. 

We watched as the failed property mogul charged shoppers £1 a time to have a snap taken with him dressed as screen idol Robert Downey Jnr’s character from the blockbuster films. 

Unsuspecting passers-by happily got next to Collins, 35 — who left a trail of financial misery in his wake after his buy-to-let business went bust, owing millions. 

In some cases, victims left out of pocket by the crash had invested their life-savings. 

When we confronted Collins on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street, he said his grasping ploy was a way to pay to get hitched in Hungary to fiancĂ©e Beata Jambor, 28 — who rattled his collection bucket. He said: “I made bad business decisions and now I’m doing this. I only proposed a month ago. 

“We want to get married in Hungary in August. It should be cheap, about £2,000. We’ve had a terrible few years. We’re just trying to rebuild our lives.” 

He went on: “I did street performances for 16 years and should have stuck to it. It makes people happy. It makes a big change from people saying, ‘Where’s my two grand, where’s my three grand?” 

The police have asked us what we are doing but when we tell them we are busking. They are okay with that.” 

Collins reached the semi-finals of telly talent show Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 before losing out to Susan Boyle. But he was investigated along with his cousin and business partner David Bone after their property scheme went belly-up in 2012. Investors were lured into their home renovation business by the promise of good returns from renting the revamped pads to students. 

But the credit crunch sank the scheme and a probe found the pair racked up £4 million debts in three years. Both were slapped with bankruptcy orders for 14 years.

Astonishingly, Collins reckons he and Bone have suffered MORE than their investors. He whined: “We travel round in a 23-year-old clapped-out van and stay in a £15-a-night B&B. They only lost one investment — I lost the lot. I lost a lot of friends. I regret ever going into business. People say we must have money stashed away somewhere — but we spent it on the company, paying high legal fees and high interest rates. 

“We were never fraudsters or criminals and we tried to do the right thing all the time. We made mistakes.” 

Last night one of Collins’ disgusted victims blasted him for not offering his Iron Man takings to debtors. Sally George,  and daughter Jasmine, of North Wales, invested £15,000 after stumbling on his property scheme on the internet. Sally said: “He should be paying at least some of the money he is collecting back to us. Another investor lost £150,000 and it’s ruined his life.” 

Sally — who started a blog to expose Collins — added: “ It’s typical of Liam Collins. He’s very much out for himself and he wants to continue making money that nobody knows about. 

“We’ve heard from over 40 people, many of whom have invested £50,000-£150,000, in some cases their life savings. “Many were too shocked and depressed or even ill to do anything about it. They never intended to pay anybody back from the beginning.” 

Last September, Collins and Bone were handed 14-year bankruptcy restriction orders in court. It was discovered that in the 15 months to April 2011 they pocketed £874,000 of investors’ cash, including £187,500 taken after the Financial Conduct Authority warned them not to. The order means they must disclose their status to a credit provider if they want to borrow more than £500. 

And they are also disqualified from being directors of any company. Collins and pal Richard Edmonds shot to fame on BGT as comedy duo Faces of Disco, who wore celeb masks to perform wacky dance routines. 

Last night a Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “No permission has been granted for a street traders licence or a permit for a charitable collection on Buchanan Street today.” 

A link to the article in the Sun:
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/5441426/Iron-Moan.html

And by the way,

As nothing has been heard of David Bone Jr (or Sr) for many months, if any of our readers should get a sighting or hear any news of him or of any other member of Coboco, please inform us at once.