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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.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

COURT HEARING FOR COLLINS AND BONE - NEWS FROM THE OFFICIAL RECEIVER

Following are two announcements from the Official Receiver:-
 
"The Official Receiver issued an application for a Bankruptcy Restriction Order in the bankruptcy proceedings of Liam James Collins (Newcastle County Court No. 1517 of 2011) on 3 May 2013. The first hearing of the application is scheduled to be heard on 25 July 2013." 

"The Official Receiver issued an application for a Bankruptcy Restriction Order in the bankruptcy proceedings of David Bone (Wigan County Court No. 100 of 2012) on 24 May 2013. The first hearing of the application is scheduled to be heard on 1  August 2013."

Here is the Government's Insolvency Service definition of a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order (BRO):-

"If the official receiver considers that a bankrupt has acted dishonestly, or is blameworthy in some other way, they will report the facts to court and ask it to make a BRO. The court will consider this report and any other evidence put before it, and will decide whether it should make a BRO. If it does, the individual will be subject to certain restrictions for the period stated in the order. This can be from 2 to 15 years."

What are the restrictions?

"The restrictions are wide ranging. They include the restrictions set out in insolvency law to which an individual is subject when they are made bankrupt and which are normally lifted when they are discharged from bankruptcy. 

These restrictions include the following:

• An individual must disclose their status as a person subject to bankruptcy restrictions to a credit provider if they wish to get credit of £500 or more.

•  If they carry on business in a different name from the name in which they were made bankrupt, they must disclose to those with whom they wish to do business the name (or trading style) under which they were made bankrupt.

• They may not act as the director of a company or take part in its promotion, formation or management unless they apply to the court for permission to do so.

• They may not act as an insolvency practitioner, or as the receiver or manager of the property of a company on behalf of debenture holders.

• They may not be a Member of Parliament in England or Wales.

It would be a criminal offence not to comply with any of the first four restrictions above."

Tuesday 18 June 2013

THE COLLINS & BONE ROADSHOW

We have been sent a collection of videos showing CoBo doing their street act, which they call FACES OF DISCO. In the video to which we provide a link below, readers will notice how eager the unsuspecting watchers are to come up and put their money in CoBo's coffers, which appear as floppy top hats each with a Union Jack emblazoned on it. That gives the impression that the money being collected is for some selfless purpose or other, but not of course for the purpose of starting to pay off their huge debts. We can only imagine that the Police and the Taxman are standing by in the crowd, enjoying the show. Have they heard the pair boast, we wonder, that they can make £1,000 a day from this street act? Another plus for Corrupt Britain. This should get the BBC to prick their ears up!

Wednesday 5 June 2013

THE ESSENTIALS OF THE CASE: A RECAPITULATIION

It may be of interest to all concerned to have a recapitulation of the critical points in the Coboco case, viz:

1. The Accounts. Investors and creditors still do not know what Coboco did with the money they took on the understanding that they were going to buy and renovate houses. We are not talking about small sums here, but millions of pounds. This is a very serious matter which Liam Collins has dismissed with the terse statement, "The money is spent." He now appears to think that he should be free simply to forget all of that and just get on with his new scheme for tax-free earnings.

2. Trust. Society and business in general rely to a great extent on trust; in fact, business would not be possible without trust. In the case of Coboco, they dishonoured the trust that had been vested in them. Their dishonesty has given an awful lot of work to many people in trying to sort out their mess. It has also caused real hardship to many bona fide investors. All this will eventually come out into the open.

3.  Starting Out With A Clean Slate. This will not be an option for Coboco until they see the wisdom of fully co-operating with the authorities and those they have deceived, to clear up that murky background of theirs. Unless they come clean, they will find that their past will not only continue to haunt them, but will inexorably catch up with them and bring them to book. As we have noted before, the partners are apparently able to argue their way into and out of almost anything, but all that does is to merely postpone the reckoning. This Blog will be following the case all the way through to ensure final fair play. Come clean now, we say to Coboco, and save everyone further trouble in having to deal with you and yours!