Thoughts on Finance, Current Affairs and General Consumer Ripoffs - Damn Lies and Statistics

How to get money back from Cauta Capital Bonds? I wrote about Cauta Capital and the risks of investing money with them back in 2019.  Sadly some of the investors in Cauta Capital are now finding out the true risks to their bond capital as repayment dates have been missed and they've apparently had erratic interest payments along the way too. Cauta were offering unrealistic interest rates of 11% on their bonds and had no mention on the adverts of the risks involved in lending money to a small startup company in the way of unregulated bonds. As with Fluid ISA Bonds investing money in an unregulated company gives you very little in the way of options to recover your money if the company go bust or stop answering your calls or emails. The money with Cauta Capital is not protected by FSCS or FCA regulated so if the company fails to pay then investors would only be able to take legal action themselves to force a return of their capital. If the company has no assets then this would be fu...

 There have been a number of investors in Fluid ISA Bond reporting that payments have not been received when expected and that they have been unable to contact the company by phone or email.  It also appears that the Fluid ISA Bond website is down supposedly for maintenance but the main Fluid website refers investors to visit the dedicated ISA bond website which is also down for maintenance and has been for some weeks. Unfortunately unregulated mini bonds such as the Fluid ISA have a risk of 100% capital loss as you are lending money to a small company. There is no indication that investors will lose all their money in Fluid ISA but the longer that they're unable to make contact with the company the more worrying it will be. Have you invested in Fluid ISA and are waiting for money to be repaid? Add a comment below so you can see if other investors are in the same position. It is unusual for a company to take a website down for maintenance over extended periods when usually it...

In a nutshell, one of the lawyers who represent many of the Private Parking Companies is in a bit of bother with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority with an impending prosecution.This particular company (Gladstones Solicitors) are a real thorn on the side for many people contesting outrageous parking fines and and try taking people to court. People affected by Gladstones are taking great delight in highlighting the troubles that Gladstones are now. What follows is the gist of the incestuous links within the alleged parking scam being operated and making many solicitors and parking companies lots of money (many ex-clampers here) - not sure about the human interest angle - but as regards the prosecution of Gladstones Solicitors by the SDT (full details on the link given) there's £35k given to charity because they couldn't identify the people who had paid them - very unlikely story> The Solicitors Regulation Authority published its’ decision made on 05/06/2021 to Prosecute Glad...

It's already been documented elsewhere that Together Energy is controlled jointly by one of its' shareholders (Paul Scott Richards) and Warrington Borough Council (they seemed to have lent quite a bit of cash to the company to keep them going). This news release by OFGEM may be of interest: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-orders-seven-suppliers-pay-ps179m-unpaid-renewables-obligations-payments Together Energy have failed to pay their Renewable Obligations that amount to £12.4 million. Out of a total of £17.7 million owed by 7 companies, £12.4m of this is owed by one company, Together Energy which doesn't look good news. £12.4M owing!!!!!!!! - Together Energy may be the next to fail, unless they get bailed out again by Warrington Borough Council of course. If I was a resident of Warrington, I'd really be more than a little concerned to find that my council tax and business rates were being used to keep afloat an energy company in Scotland. Where's the gov...

The government have finally revealed the details of the compensation scheme for investors in the failed mini bond company London Capital and Finance. The company was shown to be a Ponzi scheme by the administrators as new investor money was being used to pay interest to existing investors and loans were being made to companies linked to the directors of the company. The announcement by the government has clarified many of the questions raised after the scheme was announced and gives the information to allow investors to decide if they want to accept the compensation offer or wait for the administrators to recover funds from the few remaining solvent investments made by LCF. The details confirm that by accepting the compensation offer investors will give up all rights to any recovery from the administrators and that the FSCS will receive any money that is recovered on their behalf. This is not surprising as it recoups some of the cost of the compensation scheme. It also explains that in...

 The Bill to pay compensation up to 80% of investment value for London Capital & Finance investors has now passed all the stages in the House of Commons and the Lords and received Royal Asset so can now be implemented by the government. As previous outlined the compensation will cover up to 80% of the maximum FSCS cover of £85,000 so anyone who invested that amount will receive a total of £68,000. This total will include any interest and dividend already paid by the administrators. Anyone who invested over the FSCS limit will also be capped at £68,000 compensation which could result in major losses for some investors. However it would appear the government has decided it would be unfair to compensate for losses above that level when the FSCS limit has been widely known and this investment was not covered by FSCS anyway as an unregulated product. The Bill states that compensation will be paid within six months of it being passed so investors should receive their money by the end...

 It might start to seem like a bit of a worn record but my previous blog posts about inflation seem to be being backed up once more.  Boris Johnson has claimed the current problems are all part of his plan to move to a high wage, high skill economy. The problem with this is that with wages going up and an insufficient supply of labour constrained along with  there is a very high likelihood of price rises feeding into inflation.  If the number of workers is lower than the number of employees that the country needs then increasing wages will just move the problem from one sector to another such as refuse lorry drivers moving to drive supermarket HGVs. Sectors with lower wages such as public sector will then lose out or have to ramp up wages to compete causing a spiral of wage growth but no extra people. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58811271 As a small example if you have 11 jobs in your economy and only 10 workers then as an employer you can increase wages which...

 I’ve seen a few people making comments that they think the government should step in to control the media to prevent panic buying. Being charitable I’m assuming they’ve not really thought through what they’re suggesting and the possible implications in the future.     The problem isn’t the media reporting the news as such, it’s people making their own decisions based on their lives and priorities. Despite some of the images posted online of jerry cans I don’t believe many people are panic buying, the vast majority of people are buying fuel because they’re worried that it might not be available tomorrow or next week. The majority of people queuing for fuel say that their need is genuine but then suggest that everyone else is panic buying without seeing the apparent irony of this. “My fuel purchase is essential, everyone else is panicking”   The reality as reported originally is that fuel stations are affected by the lack of HGV drivers and have lack of certain grad...

 After the BoE August policy report I posted here that I thought inflation was likely to be higher for longer than anticipated and that I thought the Bank of England were downplaying the risks to inflation. With their September policy report  it seems like the BoE are now catching up and have stated that they think "cost pressures may prove more persistent". It's interesting that they have a lag in their assessment which presumably is due to their data collection whereas my assessment was based on what I see around me.  Everywhere you look there are places advertising for staff at all levels and all types of role. Hospitality seems in particular demand but even retail where you've had huge closures over the last 18 months there are adverts for jobs.  Speaking to friends and colleagues about getting work done, everyone is finding material prices higher and difficulty getting hold of tradespeople to do the job. You then have the rises in energy costs and fuel prices. A...

 The OFGEM price cap figures are given on their website but only for specific household consumption and they don't show the actual kWh values so this calculator was developed to make it easier to work out. Price Cap Tariff Calculator Or access via http://energy.jj99.co.uk

 With the price of gas rocketing over recent weeks it has exposed a large number of smaller energy companies that are now struggling to cover their costs and are expected to fail in the coming weeks and months. It has been suggested that the UK energy market could drop from having over 60 suppliers to as low as 10 after this winter. One example exposed by a poster on the MSE forum is the company AVRO Energy. They have looked the public information that AVRO have posted to Companies House as they are legally required to do. It has highlighted some significant issues with their financial position and their ability to keep operating as a going concern. The regulator has questions about this too and has now filed a request for an immediate response to their financial queries or AVRO may lose their licence. Update - in the time I've been writing this Avro have now stopped trading Setup in 2014 by Jake Brown (owned 100% by him and presumably his father Philip Andrew Brown) at the time a ...

 With the news reporting the current energy crisis with massive hikes in gas and electricity prices as well as numbers of suppliers going out of business I wanted to find out more information about the default price cap tariffs that apply to compare to my current rates. UPDATE - capped bill price calculator now created This wasn't an easy process to do and seems almost deliberately obscure to make it hard for consumers to compare the price cap variable rate tariffs to their current prices - probably because the price cap is lower than most tariffs will be. Eventually I found this information linked from the MSE website https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/default-tariff-cap-level-1-october-2021-31-march-2022 which shows the price cap totals for each supply area for the gas standard credit tariff but importantly doesn't show the unit rates for any of them. However it does show that the value is based on a usage of 1200kWh per year so we can use this to calculate. Electricity ...

 Following the Covid19 pandemic the expectation seems to be that some peaks of inflation are coming across the world but that these will only be temporary. These rises in inflation have already started, the main question is how big the rises will be and how long they will be maintained for. I suspect that the situation in the UK will be somewhat different to elsewhere due to the elephant in the room that is Brexit. It's not really being mentioned in the mainstream media and is being masked at the moment by the impact of Covid19 but I believe the shock to the UK economy from Brexit will be much greater than is currently being anticipated not helped by a government that is in denial. August 2021: In the MPC’s projection, inflation rises temporarily to around 4% in the near term, largely driven by energy and goods prices. Inflation starts to decline in 2022, and returns to the 2% target in late 2023 There are plenty of news reports about the shortage of workers whether that's for ...

 After their recent announcement that they are pulling out of the current account market and closing all customer accounts that remain by 30 November, Tesco have managed to score a spectacular own goal by now cancelling the switches that customers have requested. There are a lot of unhappy customers that want to move accounts now that Tesco Bank have stated that they will be closing yet Tesco seem to have completely underestimated how many customers would want to move.  To deny customers the ability to move to another bank seems to go completely against the ethos of the Current Account Switching Service (CASS) that they are signed up to especially when they have told customers that they no longer want their business. You can see that info from Tesco Bank here https://www.tescobank.com/current-accounts/

 The company that approved promotions for many mini bond sellers such as London Capital & Finance and Blackmore Bond has entered into liquidation as of 6th August 2021 as reported by the FCA. The FCA warn, without any irony, that scammers may take advantage of this situation to defraud investors who placed money with them failing to note that thousands of investors were scammed by companies such as LCF whose advertising promotions were approved by NPI. It's not known why NPI has gone into liquidation but may be due to the number of claims that could be coming relating to their approval of the Mini Bond promotions for various companies that have since failed.   Northern Provident Investments Ltd (NPI) Liquidation

 The FCA seem to be powerless to act on stopping financial scam advertising but Google is taking action to ensure that anyone advertising to UK consumers is FCA regulated or has been validated against the opt-out conditions. This wouldn't have stopped the likes of London Capital and Finance but many current advertisers are promoting unsuitable products to UK consumers such as the one below. Dear Advertiser, Google will be updating the Google Ads Financial Products and Services policy in August, 2021, to introduce new verification requirements for Financial Services advertisers targeting the UK. We will publish the policy update on August 30, 2021, and enforcement will take effect seven days later. Advertisers that have not successfully completed the updated verification process by the time enforcement begins will no longer be allowed to show financial services ads of any kind in the UK, including showing ads to UK users who appear to be seeking financial services. You can learn mor...

 Adverts for Hawthorne Harper Consulting are appearing on Facebook targeting pensioners suggesting that you can get: 12% fixed returns yearly FCA regulated trustee Fully asset backed Corporate guarantees If this list looks familiar then it may be because London Capital and Finance used many of the same phrases when advertising their mini bonds. The key information missing is that your capital is at risk and that it is not FSCS protected. A regulated trustee does not guarantee that the investment will return your capital. If you search the FCA register to check if Hawthorne Harper Consulting are registered with the FCA you will find no entry for them or for their company name Willow & Blake Associates Ltd. This means they are not authorised by the FCA to sell savings or investments to UK consumers. Hawthorne Harper Consulting review This advert has been reported to the FCA as being misleading and not complying with their requirements that unregulated investments must not be...

Review of Landal Greenparks Lodge Investments There was a recent query about Landal Greenparks lodge investment and asking if it was a scam. Some very good feedback was provided which would be useful to summarise to help anyone considering putting money into this investment in park lodges. They are claiming to be FCA regulated but it's important to make sure what the FCA regulated business actually is. London Capital & Finance were FCA regulated but not for issuing bonds and used that to give a veneer of respectability. That's not to say that  LANDAL BELVEDERE DEVELOPMENTS LTD  are doing the same but the FCA approval isn't anything to do with lodge investment. Update from further info it appears there are a number of different entities offering different things to investors for the same lodge park in Scotland. As well as the one mentioned for investment in lodges directly another more established company is offering bonds for what appears to be the same site. This com...

Scammers seem to have given up trying to sell their own mini bonds like Blackmore Bond or London Capital & Finance and are now impersonating actual genuine investment companies like Tilney to promote their scam investment bonds. The latest one is using the name of a real Tilney employee called James Dawkins but the scammers have nothing to do with Tilney and the emails are a fabrication. The emails do not use the real Tilney email addresses but a new one registered in May 2021 as fixedincome-tilney.co.uk so any replies to their fake emails will go to them not Tilney. You can see the details here  https://who.is/whois/fixedincome-tilney.co.uk The fake Tilney scammers seem to be operating via Facebook adverts and a website called  https://www.bondrates.co.uk/  Once you register for information you will get called by someone where the called ID shows as Tilney - Mayfair London. This is NOT the real Tilney investment company calling you! If you hand your money over to the...