THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG


This blog was established to help get to the bottom of how the Collins & Bone Partnership reached the very sad situation it is now in, with its partner Liam James Collins having a bankruptcy hearing on 25th January (postponed)15th March 2012 (ditto), and finally bankrupted on 9th May 2012 (case # NEWC 1517 of 2011 BKT 3472187, Newcastle County Court, The Law Courts, The Quayside, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 3LA), and David Bone Jnr declared bankrupt on 31st May (case no 100 of 2012 Wigan County Court). The partnership used the following addresses:

25 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2 H9HW, UK

Eastern Villa, Station Rd. North, Forest Hall, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE12 9AE (owned by Liam Collin's parents, and now up for sale)

There are 3 specific goals of this blog:

• To find out what happened to the 1m+ GBP monies that C&B raised via PNs in late 2009, 2010 & 2011. I am excluding PNs issued to ex-CBS investors, but that said, this blog will be of interest to ex-CBS investors, and there is information that needs to be obtained from this set of investors wrt when PNs were issued to them, and their duration.

• To determine what, if any, criminal charges should be brought against the partners.

• To warn other investors off doing any business with the partners, their equally inept/unscrupulous extended family members, and supportive cohorts.

When you look at the PNs, there are no specific statements on the documents that specify how the monies were to be used - how you believed they were to be used is based on whatever e-mail/phone call foreplay you had beforehand with Liam Collins. That is why it is so important that the following information is collated for this category of C&B investors on an individual basis:

1) What did you believe you were investing in, and what was your basis for believing this?
2) What investment risks were you informed of?
3) What was your understanding of the purpose to which PN monies could be put?
4) What brochures and documents were you furnished with as prt of your due diligence?
5) What due diligence did you do?
This blog is being operated completely separate to Sally & Jasmine's blog (http://collins-bone-investors.blogspot.com), although we share the common goal of getting to the bottom of this mess in a professional manner. If you don't want to post anything on the blog in person, you can send an e-mail to me at lastdoghome@gmail.com - information conveyed in any such e-mails will only be posted on the blog on your behalf after any editting/your specific consent.


Ewart (The Editor)



Monday 19 March 2012

Expert comments on LC anti-IVA group e-mail

We had the e-mail sent by Liam Collins on 15 March 2012 to the anti-IVA group sent to a person who is both an IVA practitioner and a bankruptcy trustee for comment, as some of the statements were concerning, and we wanted to get clarification. See indented [expert] comments below in bold.

The Editor


From: Liam Collins <liam@collinsandbone.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 2:45 PM
Subject:
To: Liam Collins <liam@collinsandbone.com>
Dear Investors,

I am writing to let you know that today’s court hearing was adjourned for 7 days. This is to allow us time to show evidence to the judge that we have many investors who oppose the bankruptcy.  This email has only gone to the people who we believe oppose the bankruptcy.

We will be calling each of you next week so that you understand exactly the situation which I will outline below in bullet points.

1.       For those intent on pursuing criminal allegations an IVA will not protect us from that. You can continue to do this for as long as you wish.
[expert]: That is correct although they won’t have the benefit of a trustee’s investigative powers to assist.
2.       Bankruptcy will lead to all Mortgage Express going to LPA receivers. A trustee will NOT be appointed for the estate as MX do not allow it.
[expert]: This is highly likely, although I am not sure what equity there is to protect.
3.       Properties are the only assets C&B own
4.       Properties will be rented out and all income will go to MX NOT to creditors.
[expert]: This will cover mortgage costs and LPA costs so no detriment to the creditors as this will happen in both scenario’s (IVA or bankruptcy).
5.       Those properties which lose tenants as a result of change of management will be boarded up, NOT advertised.
[expert]: Who knows!
6.       We do not have money in off shore accounts which will be found and split between investor
7.       We do not have anything which can be sold to generate income for investors.
8.       Under new bankruptcy laws as of January last year I will be permitted to live in my own personal property as will David if he is made bankrupt and a charge will be placed over the asset equivalent to the equity.




[expert]: They have occupational rights for a year, then creditors interests prevail.
9.       At present when you take into consideration restrictions and interest in my own home it has no equity at all even when taking valuations from 3 online comparable sites and a RICS survey.
10.   In bankruptcy I will lose all debt to my name, I will be allowed to keep my home and live in it. I will lose houses which are not going to have any equity for at least 3-5 years and rental income is only now starting to pick up. I have made no money from our assets for over 3 years so I will not miss any rental income.
11.   In bankruptcy the receivers will offer a third party of ours choice to buy the assets out for a small fee meaning someone unrelated to me would be able to buy them for a tiny amount and could then gift them back to me at a later day. YES WE DO HAVE MANY CLEVER WAYS WE COULD KEEP THESE ASSETS AND INCOME FOR OURSELVES!
[expert]: Any trustee has an obligation to obtain the best price for his equitable interest. This can be from any third party and is NOT the choice of the bankrupt.


It is time for you all to realise, there has never been bad intent only incompetence and as I say if you wish to pursue criminal allegations you are within your rights to do so.  THE IVA IS FOR YOU ALL NOT FOR US!  YOU CANNOT PUNISH US BY BANKRUPTING US. It is crazy to think you can when you look at the above points but you can punish 130 investors who have hard earned cash like yourselves tied up in this and all like yourselves would like to see some or all of this returned.

I am not unrealistic to think that we will be able to pay 100p in the pound over 5 years but we are offering that. What we are saying is this. The houses are yours, you and MX have the rental income then in 5 years sell them and whatever materialised you keep between yourselves.  Or you could take the emotional irrational Ewart Tempest Georges route, bankrupt us, get nothing wipe the slate. And then what........

Please let me know if bankruptcy is the absolute route you are supporting as there is little point in being covert I will find out in 7 days anyway but at least this way we can gauge whether we have a chance. Remember even if we achieve a 75% vote we still have to get MX to agree with this which is still unlikely but we have to try.  IF MX say no, we are bankrupt anyway.

Liam.

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