Harlequin Property: Legal settlement struck with Wilkins Kennedy, but what about investor capital?

Harlequin has reached a deal with it’s former accountant.

Wilkins Kennedy, Harlequin Property’s former accountancy firm, will now pay less than it was ordered to by the High Court for damages in place of them taking the decision to appeal.

The accountancy firm, which was engaged by Harlequin between 2006 and 2010, was told by the high-court it was partly responsible for losses arising from overpayments to the builder (ICE), and was to pay damages – a decision it was appealing.

Unregulated Overseas Property Investments

But these aren’t the only legal problems facing Harlequin, with insolvency for the SVG section of the business declared in 2016, and chairman David Ames facing multiple charges of Fraud by Abuse of Position in a trial set for 2018.

The unregulated property investment had over £400MILLION pumped into it from UK investors, much of which was pension money invested through SIPPs. Yet despite the large investment, few of the hotel rooms were ever built across the Caribbean, leading to missed returns, and now insolvency proceedings for the St Vincent and The Grenadines section of the business.

The question of whether investors will ever see their returns, or even their money back, remains unanswered.

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Spencer Churchill Claims Advice are specialists in pension mis-selling, helping to win back £millions from high-risk investment arrangements