I bought UK properties (1 unit in Block A of Empress Mill in Manchester (“Mill A”)and 2 units in Olicana House in Bradford) where the real developer is Empirical Property Group Limited / its related company although Absolute Living Developments Ltd. (“ALD”), which in fact is an agent, presented itself as the developer. ALD is now in liquidation.
Buyers started to find problems around the end of July 2015 when in the case of Mill A they were demanded to pay ground rent and service charge which are not supposed to be paid by them given the net rental guarantee they have been promised when purchasing their Mill A units.
In December 2015, it was reported in the media that Daniel Mark Harrison & Co. (“DMH & Co.”), a Singapore based property development company founded by the scion of Europe’s oldest security printers Harrison & Sons has agreed to take over the business activities of ALD and DMH & Co. acquired the White House development in Runcorn from ALD in November 2015. The President and CEO of DMH & Co., namely Mr. Daniel Mark Harrison came to Hong Kong in December 2015 and met ALD project buyers purporting to offer rescue plans but in fact was for the purpose of marketing the White House project. Mr. Harrison became ALD’s director on 3 December 2015 and was the sole director and sole shareholder of ALD on the date of petition for the winding up of ALD.
After the issue of winding up order of ALD on 12 April 2016, in June 2015, Mr. Harrison again came to Hong Kong presenting rescue plans to buyers of ALD projects, which involve buying by a ALD project buyer a unit in the White House project at a discount with a promise to buy back the ALD project unit from that buyer given. I joined this scheme and paid £4,000 as reservation fee and Mr. Daniel Mark Harrison has promised to lend me the amount to be paid on exchange of contract. However, no sale and purchase contract in relation to the White House unit I have reserved has been signed or exchanged and in fact no draft of such contract has been sent to me. Yet I have been requested to make repayment to Mr. Harrison by instalments GBP500 x 11 months.
There are some ALD project buyers that have joined the scheme but it may be that the terms offered to the buyers are not uniform and vary from buyer to buyer as buyers have been told to keep the terms offered to them confidential. So far I have paid £9,500 because of joining the scheme (in the form of reservation fee and loan repayment).
In addition to investing in the White House project, buyers who have joined the buy back scheme have been asked to make other investments in schemes run by Mr. Harrison / his company. I am already relatively lucky as for these extra investments I have only participated in one - loan and share buyback note as attached where the Singaporean company called Daniel Mark Harrison & Co. Pte. Ltd. acted as the guarantor. The IPO mentioned in the loan and share buyback note has not taken place and neither is there any repayment of the amount lent or payment of interest promised. Nor has there been any share certificate given to me.
In May 2017, Mr. Harrison sent me a e-mail saying that in order for the buy back scheme to continue I have to invest £100,000. I do not have money and have been unable to meet his request. I have then repeatedly demanded the return of my payments (both for the investment in the White House project and the loan and share buyback note) but up till now I still have not received any money back even though sometimes he said he would arrange payment and has even sent me the image of a payment instruction purporting to make payment to me, the payment advise is fake.
Daniel Harrison has been playing around with ALD victim, made 2nd damage for people who already lost money. I look forward to see him in jail.
Thank you for your kind attention.