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)



Wednesday 9 May 2012

Britain's Got Talent

... but alas, in the case of Liam Collins, not for telling the truth. He cannot even tell the simple truth of why the IVA practitioner pulled out.

Both this blog and the IFS blog have always posted informative and accurate articles - it is one of the reasons why the editors have never had to modify an article due to a factual error, and we aim to keep it that way. Alas, this cannot be said for statements from the partners, or "the Board" members. Liam Collins' e-mail to investors minutes before his bankruptcy hearing this morning, and attached below in all its "glory", is testament to the disinformation and lies that he espouses to, and I feel compelled to point out all the erroneous statements for the benefit/education of all investors:


  • Liam Collins: "The IVA company we had engaged, pulled out last Wednesday due to 'extreme hostility' from the George's as well as the other handful of people we have going against us. Their concern was that there had been press threats and it was too much of a risk for their company. This has not left us enough time to engage another firm (as you know, we struggled to get anyone to agree to take the case on initially)."
Editor: UNTRUE! The IVA company in question was McCambridge Duffy LLP - not many investors will have known that. With the exception of a personal "olive branch" e-mail from Liam Collins to Sally, Jasmine and myself  on March 30th which we agreed not to publish, we have received no e-mails from the partners until the one sent today i.e. we had received no e-mails wrt IVA proposal progress for many weeks. So on 26th April Sally & Jasmine sent an e-mail to Michael Peoples at McCambridge Duffy LLP to find out what the status of the IVA proposal was - their e-mail, and the response from Michael Peoples, is below. As you can see, all very polite and professional, just as it should be: 

----- Original Message -----
From: IRN
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 7:03 AM
Subject: Collins & Bone Partnership

Dear Mr Peoples,

We are creditors with the above partnership and have been wondering whether there is any news about the development of an IVA for Liam Collins and David Bone, Jr.  We have heard nothing from the partners for over a month and neither has the lawyer, Tim Clift, nor have any of the investors with whom we are in touch.

We are asking you directly rather than contacting the partners because we are unable to trust a word they say or write regarding the state of their finances. 
Yours sincerely 
SALLY and JASMINE GEORGE



Dear Mr and Mrs George,

Unfortunately, I cannot answer any specifics but I can confirm that at this time we have not drafted any IVA proposal for the Collins and Bone partnership. If we do draft a proposal it will be circulated in the near future but there is no certainty that this will happen.

I will try and see if I have authority to discuss any further and will revert to you once I have spoken to the partners.

Kind Regards,
Michael.
Michael Peoples
Manager - Self Employed Department
McCambridge Duffy
Telephone:         028 7137 7321
Fax:                  028 7130 8025
E-mail:              mpeoples@mccambridgeduffy.com


With the exception of a telephone call from Tim Clift to McCambridge Duffy LLP the morning before the hearing to find out the status of the proposed IVA (the receptionist informed Tim Clift that they were no longer instructed by Collins & Bone), this is the full extent of the anti-IVA group's interactions with them.
So I sent an e-mail to Michael Peoples to have him comment on Liam's statement, and this is what he came back with:


Date: Thu, May 10, 2012 at 4:43 AM
Subject: Re: Why did McCambridge Duffy pull out of C&B IVA proposal?
To: ewart tempest <ewart.tempest@gmail.com>

Dear Mr Ewart,

 A number of people contacted ourselves and Mr Chris Jary who helped Liam get the first adjournment making various accusations. While this may indeed be a factor in deciding whether to proceed with the IVA, there was also an issue with Mortgage Express who were the main lender to Collins/Bone. It is their policy to appoint LPA receivers if a landlord enters an IVA and this would have caused any IVAs to collapse. We spoke to them on a number of occasions and they would not say for definite that they would not appoint LPAs.

This was a huge factor in being unable to proceed as we could not draft proposals and recommend them to creditors knowing that Mortgage Express could pull the plug immediately afterwards. They did say they would refer the case to their risk team and hopefully it would be looked favourably upon, but that answer was not enough to justify the work and expense involved in drafting IVAs.

 I hope this information is helpful but should you require anything further please give me a call.

 Kind Regards,

 Michael Peoples.

Michael Peoples     
Manager - Self Employed Department
McCambridge Duffy
Telephone:         028 7137 7321
Fax:                  028 7130 8025
E-mail:              mpeoples@mccambridgeduffy.com
Web:                 http://www.mccambridgeduffy.com/     



----- Original Message -----

Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 11:40 AM
Subject: Why did McCambridge Duffy pull out of C&B IVA proposal?

Dear Mr Peoples,

Liam Collins, just before going into his personal bankruptcy hearing this morning (May 9th) in Newcastle Upon Tyne posted an e-mail to investors in which he stated the following:

"The IVA company we had engaged, pulled out last Wednesday due to 'extreme hostility' from the George's as well as the other handful of people we have going against us. Their concern was that there had been press threats and it was too much of a risk for their company."

McCambridge Duffy is "The IVA company" mentioned above. Can you comment on the above statement and the nature of the "extreme hostility" your firm was at the receiving end of from the George's/others.

Ewart (a major Collins & Bone Partnership investor)


  • Liam Collins: "We had overwhelming support in favour of an IVA, comfortably over the 75% needed, and for all those who supported us in this, we are desperately sorry that it has now come to this. We never ever wanted any of this to happen the way it has, and we are so, so sorry."

Editor: UNTRUE! Liam Collins is evidently not familiar with even the basics of IVAs. When voting on an IVA proposal it does not matter how many investors would vote in favour of it, but the percentage of the debt that these investors represent. If this percentage is less than 75% of the total debt of those who voted, the IVA proposal fails. We don't know the actual number of investors but even so they certainly don't have 87% of the investors on their side; at the most, they have up to 60% of the total debt. So the partners never had any chance of passing an IVA proposal unless the percentage return on investment was sizeable and guaranteed i.e. an incentive for anti-IVA members to change sides. The approach taken by the bloggers during the past 5-6 weeks has been to take a well-deserved rest after all the investigative work of the past few months, and to see what proposal if any the partners put forward ... but nothing materialised.


  • Liam Collins: "One of Sally and Jasmine George's main supporters has told us 'we have a person ready to take control of the portfolio should you go bankrupt', I guess we will see if this is possible for them, and whether they are going to hold them in trust for the other investors as an IVA would, only time will tell."

Editor: UNTRUE! This mis-information has already been addressed in the blog article "OK, who squealed? Liam now knows ...". Tim Clift does however have a bankruptcy trustee whom many creditors would like to see approved by the Official Receiver, someone who is totally unconnected with any of the partners, their respective families, or friends. A person who is both an experienced IVA practitioner and bankruptcy trustee.

To Liam Collins I say, if you claim to have a proposal which makes commercial sense, put it on the table along with all the backing data. After all, if it is commercially viable you should have no problem getting an IVA proposal together. Stop blaming others for your own failures!



The Editor







From: Liam Collins <collinsandbone@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Wed, May 9, 2012 at 5:51 AM
Subject: Bankruptcy Hearing
To:


Dear all,

As you are aware we have a hearing today at 11am at Newcastle Court. Unfortunately, I will now be made bankrupt at this hearing.

The IVA company we had engaged, pulled out last Wednesday due to 'extreme hostility' from the George's as well as the other handful of people we have going against us. Their concern was that there had been press threats and it was too much of a risk for their company. This has not left us enough time to engage another firm (as you know, we struggled to get anyone to agree to take the case on initially). 

We had overwhelming support in favour of an IVA, comfortably over the 75% needed, and for all those who supported us in this, we are desperately sorry that it has now come to this. We never ever wanted any of this to happen the way it has, and we are so, so sorry.

I will be confirmed bankrupt at 11am, Davey has a hearing on 31st May where that result is also now a formality.

We do have a 6 week window to get an IVA in place even after we have been made bankrupt (as in we have 6 weeks for an IVA to over-turn today's ruling), and we will be doing all we can to get this in place.

I'm not sure if its worth those supporting the IVA contacting the original firm who were taking it on to show how much support we have, we will be in touch regarding this.

It has all come as a bit of a shock, and we have worked up until last night to try to turn this around, but we have been unable to.

We have it in writing that Mortgage Express would have considered an IVA (if it made commercial sense), and we had a proposal which most certainly did. We also have it in writing that upon bankruptcy the properties will all be placed into LPA receivership, and, as mentioned previously, it only takes a google search of 'mortgage express LPA' to see what will result from that.

One of Sally and Jasmine George's main supporters has told us 'we have a person ready to take control of the portfolio should you go bankrupt', I guess we will see if this is possible for them, and whether they are going to hold them in trust for the other investors as an IVA would, only time will tell.

I cant express how sorry we are enough, I guess it would, at this stage appear we have lost the fight for the IVA, we will continue over the next 6 weeks to try to get another in place, but with the hostility shown towards the last company spoiling any chance we had, I'm not sure how far we will get with this action.

I'm not sure what else to say at this point other than sorry, and that we will continue to work to get an IVA in place over the coming weeks.

Thanks again for all of the support we have received, its been massively appreciated,

Liam.
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