Two art investment companies which fraudulently took more than half a million pounds from investors have been wound up by a UK court.
Wardells Design Limited and Camp Partners Limited were shut down on 4 December in the high court, Manchester.
The Official Receiver has been appointed liquidator of the companies.
The Insolvency Service was made aware of the firms after finding connections with previous investigations into associated businesses, Halifax Mannin, Hey Design Services, Gem Tobin and Dionysus Design Services.
All of the associated companies were wound up in the public interest in 2019 having abused investors’ funds of almost £2.5m ($3.3m, €2.8m).
Details
Following enquiries, investigators found that Warrington-based Wardells Design and Ipswich-based Camp Partners received payments from investors who thought they were investing in works of art painted by renowned artists.
The high court heard that “Wardells Design and Camp Partners worked as part of a multi-million-pound art investment scheme operated from Spain or Morocco by a separate business using a number of names”, the Insolvency Service said.
Between March 2019 and February 2020, Wardells Design and Camp Partners received £600,000 from investors.
The Insolvency Service said that all the funds were removed from the companies’ bank accounts with investigators unable to determine how it was spent.
The court wound up the two companies because “they traded with a lack of commercial probity, having been incorporated or used as vehicles for fraud with their sole purpose being to receive monies wrongly obtained as investments from members of the public”, the UK government body added.
“The court also accepted that the companies, and those individuals in control of them, traded with a lack of transparency, failed to cooperate with the investigation and failed to maintain or deliver up accounting records.”
‘Cynical scam’
David Hope, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “These companies were used as part of a cynical scam targeting members of the public, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, and took more than £600,000 from them.
“There is no evidence that this investment had any value or is likely to generate any return for investors.
“The winding up of these companies following our investigation has put a stop to these activities and prevents them from causing any further harm.
“We would advise anyone considering an investment of this nature to exercise caution and take independent financial advice before doing so.”
