NO 'WORLD MASTERS' WIN FOR LIAM COLLINS IN BUDAPEST

For those readers who are as keen as we are to bring Collins to justice, here is some relatively new information about his movements. He has spent a lot of time recently training for athletics events. He hoped to win the 60 metre hurdles at the World Masters Championship in Budapest last month. 

In an interview last year, he said: “My next challenge is to make the Olympic Team for Sochi 2014. Failing that I will try and win the Masters M35 60m Hurdles in Budapest in March.” Collins was not part  of the Winter Olympics team (let us know if you sighted him in Sochi!) and he reached 5th place in the hurdles race in Budapest on 29th March:

He has a lot of psychic baggage to carry around these days, which will clearly impact on his attempts to win in athletics or succeed in any other sphere. He has so far shown no remorse about the devastation and misery caused by his deceit and swindling.

The investigation into Collins and his background of massive fraud is very much ongoing, but we are currently restricted by a confidentiality agreement—which is why this Blog has seemed to be inactive for a while.

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 fiancée 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.
 

MARK BLACK AND FORMER COBO PROPERTIES - UPDATE

This is an update to our previous post. Mark Black is no longer managing former CoBo properties for the LPA receivers. The receivers and their agent are now aware of Mr Black's involvement in the CoBo financial fiasco and the responsibility that he bears personally for misery and loss caused to bona fide investors and student tenants through dishonest dealing.

MARK BLACK of ADAVO PROPERTIES SEEKS TO RENT OUT DUBIOUS FORMER COLLINS & BONE PROPERTIES

We have been sent details of two properties that formerly belonged to the Collins & Bone partnership and that are now being advertised for rental by Mark Black, viz:

What on earth is going on here?! Don't the Mortgage Company and LPA Receivers realize that Mark Black was inextricably involved in the deceptive schemes of Collins & Bone, in which millions of pounds of investors' money remain unaccounted for? Are the authorities unaware of the fact that Mark Black was responsible for unpaid bills to contractors and utility companies as well as the non-return of students' deposits? Well, we trust that they will take notice of this forthwith and take the necessary action.

COLLINS & BONE - ANOTHER REPORT

The following report will be of general interest to readers, but there will be more to come as journalists have so far covered this case mainly by personally highlighting Liam Collins and David Bone Jr.—which of course is yet more publicity for those attention junkies. Reporters have not seriously looked into the way in which the bona fide investors were deceived, the damage that was done and the distress it continues to cause. All this needs rigorous examination. Here is the link:

http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/09/03/britains-got-talent-dancer-misled-investors-over-874k/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk%7Cdl9%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D206072

A SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR COLLINS AND BONE FROM THEIR LOCAL NEWSPAPER

Readers may be interested to glance at an article published in today's Newcastle Sunday Sun, which reprises the partners' crooked dealings. It's only of very minor interest, however, since it mainly offers more publicity to the attention-greedy Collins than insight into the frauds that he and his partner have perpetrated. We suppose that this local paper is inclined to be just a little indulgent towards 'one of its own.' Better that, than getting a brick through the window, perhaps? This is the link:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-tyneside-britains-talent-stars-5852547 

In the article, Collins protests that he is actually innocent of what the Official Receiver has found in the course of his investigation and he refers to the long-winded but unconvincing statement in his defence that he sent the Secretary of State. Here is what the Official Receiver wrote to us this Friday, 6th September:

"In giving the bankruptcy undertakings, Liam Collins and David Bone Jr signed that they did not dispute the areas of misconduct that the Official Receiver had made against them. As you rightly say, if they had wished to dispute the matters, the forum for this would have been the Court."

They're wriggling on the hook.

LIAM COLLINS AND DAVID BONE JR - DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

CoBo's creditors have today received an avalanche of emails from Liam Collins, protesting innocence, but instead it just convinces more and more people of his total untrustworthiness. Frankly, the only sentence that caught our eye appeared in the first paragraph of his covering letter, to wit, "We have our reasons why we did this but we simply should not have done so." Our response, to cover all of those emails: "You shouldn't have done any of it. Stop arguing, admit your guilt without further quibble and get a reduced sentence."

LIAM COLLINS & DAVID BONE ACHIEVE FAME AS SWINDLERS!

The Mail Online has today published an article on Collins and Bone which will be of interest to all readers of this Blog, viz.:

 Here's the link:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/celebritymoney/article-2409740/Britains-Got-Talent-star-Liam-Collins-handed-bankruptcy-ban-duping-investors-property-scam.html

JUSTICE CLOSES IN ON COLLINS AND BONE

Today the Insolvency Service posted the following Press Release on its website:

Britain's Got Talent dancer and business partner get 28-year bankruptcy restrictions for investment scam

Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Liam James Collins, and his business partner and fellow street dancer David Bone, have each received 14-year bankruptcy restrictions for misleading people into investing in a property scheme that never materialised.

The restrictions, which also disqualify them from being directors, started on 25 July 2013, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Mr Collins and Mr Bone gave the bankruptcy restrictions undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovations and Skills, following earlier bankruptcy orders made on 9 May 2012 and 31 May 2012 respectively. They each owed over £4.5 million to creditors.

Investigators found that from January 2010 to April 2011, Mr Collins (34) of Covent Garden, London, who danced on the TV show as one half of the act “Faces of Disco” and his cousin, David Bone (31) of Middleton, Greater Manchester, took £874,000 from investors promising returns of between eight and ten percent, but instead used the funds to pay business expenses.

At the time, the two dancers already owed over £3 million to creditors following the failure of a similar property business. Between November 2010 and April 2011, they also took a further £187,500 from the public despite being warned not to do so by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Mr Collins and Mr Bone failed to carry out any of the investment activity that investors would have reasonably expected them to do. When investors sought explanations they were misled and the true state of the partnerships finances were kept from them.

Commenting on the case, Ken Beasley of the Insolvency Service’s Public Interest Unit said:

“At a time when they were already heavily indebted Collins and Bone took substantial sums of money from members of the public with the promise of high returns on property investments with no reasonable expectation that they would ever be able to meet the repayments promised to investors."

"The Insolvency Service investigates the circumstances of all bankruptcies and will use its enforcement powers to tackle serious misconduct of this kind.”

Contact Information.  Media Enquiries should be directed to Kathryn Montague – Media Relations Manager – 020 7674 6910 or Ade Daramy, Press Officer - 020 76596 6187.

OUR AIM AND HOW THINGS STAND REGARDING COLLINS AND BONE

Our aim, from the start of this Blog, as most readers know, has been to clarify the accounts of Collins and Bone and their associates (Coboco) and to find out what happened to the investors’ money. We had to ensure that the two persons in the forefront of this case, the perpetrators Liam Collins and David Bone Jr, were bankrupted in order that scrutiny of their financial accounts could commence.

The analysis of those accounts is the job of the Public Trustee (PT). In this case, Messrs Chantrey Vellacott were nominated when their agent, Mr David Clements, was working for them and was in touch with us. Since he left the firm, Chantrey Vellacott does not seem to have considered it any kind of priority to communicate with Collins and Bone's creditors. Professional people these days do charge very high fees and consequently the Public Trustee feels that it would be too costly to scrutinize all of the said accounts in detail; witness that Chantrey Vellacott, having scarcely scratched the surface of the said accounts, have already managed to rack up a bill of £40,000 plus VAT—and that doesn’t take account of their lawyer! We realise that the cost of maintaining offices in Russell Square and elsewhere must be exorbitant,* but that can’t be a problem to dump on CoBo’s creditors, can it? Nor is it fair to plunder the sole (at present) discoverable asset pertaining to Collins & Bone, namely, the property at 25 Shelton Street, London. ‘Trustee’ means someone who is to be trusted, but it doesn’t mean someone who can be trusted to get as much out of a situation for themselves without the slightest regard to the other people and other factors involved.

The Trustees, Chantrey Vellacott, have called a creditors’ meeting in order to approve their charges and they have offered to host this meeting at the nominal charge of £100 plus VAT for the use of one of their rooms for this purpose. They have not stated whether this fee would include refreshments, sandwiches, etc. There can be no doubt that this would present an absurd situation for CoBo’s creditors. Something more equitable will have to be worked out, as well as something more reasonable by way of fees. 

No wonder British business is in a parlous state! We warn that with this sort of grab-and-snatch attitude, everyone will eventually lose out.

Meanwhile, evidence is surfacing that David Bone Sr and Mark Black benefited substantially from money that investors entrusted to Collins & Bone and to CBS. In fact, they were able to draw on those funds at will, without any proper checks. ('Those funds' = money paid to them in good faith by many readers of this Blog, as well as ourselves).

We call upon all those involved in this case to pull their socks up and help us shovel away this sorry mess. You are invited to rise up from your sofas.

* Mr Clements was based in Reading, where it is logical to suppose that overheads are considerably less overheated than they are in central London.