Liverpool property firm directors banned for misleading Far East investors

Six directors at a Liverpool property firm who misled hundreds of investors into spending millions on apartments that were never finished have been banned from business.

One of the four schemes the Insolvency Service investigated was The Printhouse, in Manchester. The other three were in Bradford.

Absolute Living Developments (ALD) pulled in at least £12m of investment from more than 300 investors, mostly in the Far East, by selling apartments off-plan in residential property schemes.

But investors complained the schemes were never finished and were “unliveable”.

Investigators from the Insolvency Service found the Exchange Flags-based company provided “misleading and incomplete” information to investors and failed to protect their money.

The Insolvency Service says six directors, four of whom are based in Malaysia, have been disqualified from serving as company directors for a minimum of six years each.

They include Adrianne Mei Kwan Nyau, 40, from the Woodchurch Estate in Birkenhead.

ALD was developing the East Lane House development in Runcorn, but that was not one of the developments investigated by the Insolvency Service.

The failure of ALD’s developments sparked fury in Hong Kong, with demonstrations held in 2016.

ALD’s first address was in London, but its office moved to terraced Snowdrop Street, in Kirkdale, Liverpool, in September 2014.

Three months later it moved to Horton House, situated in Exchange Flags, behind Liverpool Town Hall, before it went into liquidation in 2016.

ALD was wound up in a court hearing in 2016 after a petition from Bradford Council.

Liquidators say the company’s total debts could be more than £68m.

That winding-up order led to an Insolvency Service investigation into the company and its directors.

The last of the directors to be disqualified was Daniel Mark Harrison, 38, from Kilburn in London, who was banned for six years by court order on November 28, 2018.

The Insolvency Service says that during his hearings, the court heard ALD was set up to attract investments to convert commercial property into apartments.

But the service says people who invested in ALD projects found “the developments had not been fully completed and the apartments were unliveable”.

It says investigators “discovered various examples of misconduct by Absolute Living Developments facilitated by the directors.”

The service said: “The company provided misleading and incomplete information about the developments to investors, meaning people couldn’t carry out due diligence.

“Absolute Living Developments had no ability to ensure the terms of contracts with investors could be met and failed to provide adequate safeguards for money obtained from investors.

“For one of the developments, Absolute Living Developments requested completion payments from investors, despite the development not being completed.

“And the company signed charges over Absolute Living Developments’ assets, which meant that a third party owns them and there are no remaining assets in the liquidation to pay creditors.”

Ken Beasley, official receiver for the Insolvency Service said: “This was a complex investigation, considering the amount of money that was invested, not all of the directors were based in the UK and we worked with several other authorities.

“We want to draw attention to these rogue directors so we can alert people about the risks involved when investing, while also warning that we will investigate and tackle those that set out to deliberately rip people off by misrepresenting the investment opportunity on offer.”

The banned directors from Absolute Living Developments are:

Kien Cheong Yew, 40, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – disqualified from January 29, 2018, to January 28, 2030 (12 years).

Ameerali Bin Abas, 39, from Selangor, Malaysia – disqualified from June 27, 2018, to June 26, 2027 (9 years).

Andrea Nicole Pacquiao Pieter, 30, from Selangor, Malaysia – disqualified from March 20, 2018, to March 19, 2027 (9 years).

Adrianne Mei Kwan Nyau, 40, from Wirral – disqualified from December 14, 2017, to December 13, 2026 (9 years).

Chi Yeun Leong, 68, from Bangsar, Malaysia – disqualified from December 21, 2017, to December 20, 2026 (9 years).

Daniel Mark Harrison, 38, from Kilburn North-West London – disqualified from November 28, 2018, to November 27, 2024 (6 years).