MP to quiz ministers over property scam
LIB Dem MP Norman Baker is to raise concerns in Parliament about a suspected international property scam exposed by the Sunday Express.
Hundreds of Britons are believed to have lost millions of pounds with Midlands-based Ocean View Properties International Ltd, which is in serious financial difficulty and whose accounts show debts of more than £100million.
The company encouraged people to remortgage their homes in Britain and plough the equity into “off-plan” apartments on Spain’s Costa del Sol and in the Dominican Republic.
Deposits averaging £70,000 each were then paid to Ocean View, which told customers the money would be held in “client accounts”.
When people started asking for refunds, Ocean View told them the money had been transferred to a Spanish developer controlled by Ricardo Miranda.
Mr Miranda, who last month unveiled his new development project with Prince Albert of Monaco in the Dominican Republic, claims he returned the money to Ocean View.
Fraud squad officers from South Wales Police are meeting colleagues from Staffordshire next week to decide which force should head the investigation into Ocean View.
A police source said: “If it’s deemed so big, the Metropolitan Police’s economic directorate could run it.”
Meanwhile, the Government’s Insolvency Service is conducting its own inquiry, while the Financial Services Authority is understood to be probing suspected fraudulent mortgage applications completed on behalf of clients by Ocean View sales chief Adam Sargent.
Ocean View’s main negotiator for development sites in Spain was convicted fraudster Sean Woodhall.
He was one of four British businessmen who disappeared in a mystery light aircraft crash in Brazil last May.
Plane wreckage washed up on the Brazilian coast, but no bodies have ever been recovered.
All four and two Brazilian pilots have been declared dead.
Lib Dem frontbencher Mr Baker, MP for Lewes, congratulated the Sunday Express on its investigation and said he would be tabling an Early Day Motion on the matter next week.
He said: “Serious concerns have been raised and I will be trying to ensure the appropriate authorities here fully investigate.”
Mr Miranda, Mr Sargent and Ocean View’s boss, Colin Thomas, have all denied any wrongdoing.
