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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.

Saturday, 11 February 2012

ADDING IT ALL UP

Well, having been through all the evidence, it is difficult to fully understand how four or five people could have made such a comprehensive mess. They accepted quite substantial sums of money from investors on the strength of seemingly plausible property schemes. But they failed to buy houses according to their advertised business plan, instead using the investors' money as ready cash or spending it on whatever ideas took their fancy at the time. Unless further facts emerge to the contrary, that's how it is looking right now. And the fact is that an awful lot of money is owed by this group, much of it to people who can ill afford to lose it. Yet as far as we know, the group still claim that they have not been engaged in any wrongdoing. 

Amazingly enough, their chief salesman has even suggested that the investors themselves are to blame for having placed their trust and money in his hands. Also, for not checking his track record more thoroughly and for being fooled by his offers of unfeasibly high interest. Further, according to him, this Blog itself is to blame because without it, they would all be able to get back to work - cheerfully taking in more money from unsuspecting people.

That this has been going on for so long is now beyond a joke. Their best course, in our view, would be to turn themselves in, so that the due process of sorting out the mess with some proper accountancy could start without further prevarication. The law of this country is really quite soft, so they have little to worry about in the way of retribution. 

As for us, we just want our money back. It's that simple.

1 comment:

  1. I think its a disgrace and the senior partners ie David Bone snr/Mark Black to name but a few of this large family should do the correct thing put there hands up and sort there mess up.

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