Harlequin Properties was due to build more than 6,000 luxurious and profitable hotel and rental properties in stunning locations around the Caribbean. However, despite accepting roughly £400 million in UK investments, from sources like SIPPs (for which some agents were paid 15% commission), approximately only 300 were actually built.
An example of what can go wrong if you invest in high-risk overseas property developments, Harlequin was sold via a network of marketing firms who cold-called their targets, and independent financial advisers who mis-sold to clients. Today, the Saint Vincent and The Grenadines section (Harlequin SVG) is in insolvency proceedings, and the chairman has been found guilty of fraud by abuse of position.
The company first became known to investors through calls from unregulated marketing companies or at property investment seminars. In many cases, cold-calling firms would ring up “out of the blue”, normally to offer a free pension review.
In some instances, high-pressure sales techniques were used, including playing down people’s current pension arrangements, and emphasising the security and safety of a Harlequin Properties investment. But investors were not told that this was a high-risk and unregulated investment that conveniently wasn’t under the jurisdiction of the FCA.
The FSCS has, up to now, paid out more than £98 million in compensation for mis-sold Harlequin Property claims. If you think you may have been mis-sold a financial product by Harlequin, contact us today. Our understanding and friendly team will help you receive the compensation you deserve.
Multiple financial advisers and the FSCS have been paying out compensation for mis-sold Harlequin Properties investments through SIPPs and SSASs. If any of the below factors sound familiar to you, you could be entitled to compensation for a mis-sold investment or negligent SIPP advice.
Putting aside the fact that this investment was regularly mis-sold by not just one, but multiple regulated financial advisers, the investment scheme itself wasn’t massively successful either. As far back as 2013 investors started to hear that there were problems with Harlequin Properties. Properties simply weren’t being built, which made it pretty much impossible for the investment money to generate any returns.
Fears and suspicions were confirmed when the Serious Fraud Office in the UK launched an investigation into Harlequin in March 2013. Whatever happened to the investment, the problems began for the majority of investors when they were inappropriately advised to invest their pensions into a high-risk scheme.
Transfers into Harlequin started as early as 2008. But issues began to become clear in 2013 when the Serious Fraud Office started its investigation into the property group. The investigation focused on investments made between 2010 and 2015.
In October 2014, Harlequin lost a court case with 33 investors. The group of investors had paid 30% deposits from hotel rooms sold as “freehold” and were told that they would see high returns on those investments. However, they didn’t receive their titles over the hotel rooms and were denied return of their deposits.
Various other key events occurred in this case. This included Harlequin Chairman David Ames being charged with fraud in 2017.
By 2019, it was revealed that the FSCS had paid out a total of 125 million in Harlequin Property claims.
A London court found Ames guilty of abuse of position after defrauding investors in the never-completed luxury Caribbean resort project.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you think you were mis-sold a pension by Harlequin Properties. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation review of your situation.
Where multiple people have received negligent or fraudulent pension advice from the same professional advisor/company, we can help them to recover their losses collectively. Group actions can be a powerful tool and can have a bigger impact than a single claim.
CONTACT US TO DISCUSS A PENSION MIS-SELLING GROUP ACTION CASE
David Ames, the former chairman of Harlequin, was subsequently accused of cheating thousands of property investors out of millions of pounds. And on 22 August 2022, Ames was found guilty of fraud.
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