UK landbanking Internet scam exposed

By Staff

(EUNN) London - A landbanking scam was exposed by the British Companies Investigation Branch (CIB) of the Insolvency Service Friday in which a company optioned agricultural land near Southwold in Suffolk which was then sold to 250 people over the Internet by another company, charging them 50 times its value in sub-dividing the land into plots of 2,000 square feet at a price of around £9,000 per plot.

Townfield Land Investments Limited acquired agricultural land under an option agreement with a local farmer. It was then marketed to the public by Libertas Land Limited over the Internet.

CIB's investigation revealed that the plots had been sold using the internet to at least 250 members of the public across the UK at some 50 times their agricultural value.

The CIB further stated that the land was unsuitable for residential development. In particular, the site was within an area of outstanding natural beauty and a part of the Heritage Coast, where planning authority policy is not to permit development. The southern part was within a flood risk area and a part of the land also fell within a site of Special Scientific Interest. Additionally the site had shrinking and swelling clay ground stability hazards.

Registrar Rawson in the High Court said that "this was a clear case where all three companies needed to be wound up in the public interest."