Company wound up for dodgy land deals

A PROPERTY company which sold plots of land on the false promise that developers would apply for planning permission and purchase entire sites has been wound up in the High Court for misleading investors.

GLE & International Property sold plots at Hollins Farm, Red Lees Road, Burnley in Lancashire and Flax Lane, Lathom, Ormskirk, also Lancashire.

Surrey-based GLE & International bought the Burnley land at £2.85 per sq ft and immediately resold them to investors for £7 to £8 per sq ft.
Between August 2010 and November 2010, the company sold a total of six plots with an aggregate sales value of £70,440.

The company purchased plots on the Ormskirk site at £4.75 per sq ft and immediately re-sold them to investors at £12 – £14 per sq ft.
 
Between December 2010 and February 2011 the company sold a total of seven plots with an aggregate sales value of £99,952.

The investigation found that none of the sites had been developed and that no applications for planning permission had even been made.
 
Enquiries made of the relevant local authorities established that the respective sites were within designated green belt areas and were highly unlikely to be granted planning permission for development.

Colin Cronin, investigation supervisor with the Insolvency Service, said: “As invariably happens with landbanking cases of this type the only people who profited from the company’s trading were those involved in the sale of the land to investors and those who recruited or otherwise introduced investors to GLE & International Property Ltd and who received significant commission payments for doing so.

“The plots of land were sold to investors on the false basis that there were developers waiting in the wings to obtain the necessary planning permission and to develop the land, something which would result in a substantial uplift in the value of the plots.
 
“The reality is that there were no arrangements with genuine developers in place and no steps were ever taken to apply for planning permission.

“The net result is that investors have paid highly inflated prices for plots of land which they are powerless to deal with on an individual basis.

“These winding-up proceedings show that The Insolvency Service will take firm action against companies which mislead the public in this way.”