Bogus compensation firm wound up
A ROCHDALE company which falsely claimed to be able to obtain compensation for fraud victims has been wound-up by the Insolvency Service.
European Mediation cold-called victims of frauds and told them it could recover their losses from the so-called European Compensation Fund. The Insolvency Service’s Companies Investigation Branch found no evidence to suggest the fund exists.
The company received an income of £670,000 but none of its customers received compensation or a “valuable service”, said the Insolvency Service. The funds were withdrawn for the benefit of the company’s directors and associated businesses.
The company claimed to act on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis but asked clients to pay 10% of the compensation up front. According to its website the company operated from its registered office address at 6 Pearson Close in Rochdale, a terraced house which was the home of one of the company’s directors.
It is believed that the telesales staff were based at a call centre in Malaga, Spain. The directors of the company could not be found at the addresses they had provided.
In winding up European Mediation the High Court held that the company had operated in a manner contrary to the public interest by falsely claiming to be able to obtain compensation for client losses; by providing false and misleading information on its website about its trading address and the number of years it had been operating; by providing false information to the Registrar of Companies relating to the residential addresses of the directors; and that the company officers had failed to cooperate with the investigation.