A private investigation firm has played a pivotal role in the conviction of two Warwickshire-based conmen who fraudulently sold timeshares in luxury yachts in Turkey.
Expert Investigations provided evidence which led to the prosecution of Andrew Harris and David Evans, directors of Hatton-based Shakespeare Classic Line, who defrauded an estimated 100 victims.
The long-running case, which was brought by Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards, ended last week with 53-year-old Harris of Henley Road, Alcester, being jailed for four-and-a-half years. Evans, aged 68, of Longden Road, Shrewsbury, received a 21-month sentence suspended for two years.
They were found guilty of fraudulent trading after a trial at Warwick Crown Court in June.
Harris and Shakespeare Classic Line was also found guilty of another ten counts of breaching Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, while Evans was found guilty of five charges of flouting the same laws.
Expert Investigations, which is headquartered in Coventry but has offices in Birmingham, London, Leeds and Warwickshire, became involved in the Shakespeare Classic Line case after one of the timeshare firm’s victims approached them.
Managing director David Kearns said: “We were instructed to conduct an investigation into the case as our client had been to speak with Warwickshire Trading Standards and was advised to collate some more evidence to prove what she was saying.”
Prosecutor Tony Watkin said the fraud involved the sale of ‘fractional ownership’ in three £250,000 yachts moored at Marmaris in Turkey. Potential customers were enticed to attend sales presentations at Shakespeare Classic Line’s premises through cold calls and the offer of free holidays. But once they were there, they were subjected to high-pressure sales in a bid to get them to sign up.
The pressure, sometimes involving up to four sales staff, was designed to wear people down and to get them to commit themselves on the spot.
Warwickshire Trading Standards received complaints from consumers across the UK, many of whom had paid approximately £10,000 each and agreed to pay maintenance fees of £399 per annum, increasing by up to 10 per cent per year.
Trading Standards said what people were actually agreeing to buy was one week a year for 25 years in a cabin on a small shared yacht moored in Turkey.
Expert Investigations used a variety of investigative methods to gather the evidence needed to prove fraudulent activity was taking place, including going undercover and using former police interviewing techniques to gain as much evidence as possible.
Explaining how its evidence helped progress the prosecution, Mr Kearns added: “What we find is that once evidence is gathered by ourselves and we produce a file of that evidence – which we conduct to police standards and procedures - to a law enforcement body then there is a much healthier appetite to conduct the investigations.”
Sentencing the two men, Judge Alan Parker said: “Mr Harris ran what can only be described as a fraud factory in Hatton, where customers were processed in industrial numbers.”
