A company called Bradlodge Corporate Trading is cold calling people who have been scammed into buying carbon credits as investments. Bradlodge Corporate Trading’s boiler room conmen tell people that their company can sell their carbon credits. For an advance fee, of course.
Several people have written comments on REDD-Monitor explaining that they have been contacted by Bradlodge Corporate Trading (here, here, here, here and here). In addition, a couple of people have sent emails asking about Bradlodge Corporate Trading.
One of the tales that the company’s conmen spin is that the UK government is going to freeze carbon credits soon. Bradlodge Corporate Trading claims to be able to sell the credits before the government freezes them. Both parts of the tale are nonsense. The UK government is not freezing carbon credits and Bradlodge Corporate Trading cannot sell them – not least because there is no secondary market for voluntary carbon credits.
Let’s see what we can find out about this company. On its website, the company displays a series of logos: London Metal Exchange; Metalor; The Royal Mint; World Gold Council; and DueDil. Clicking on the DueDil logo takes us to a company called Bradlodge Ltd.
Bradlodge Ltd was registered in November 2009, by Ceri John who was its sole director until 21 October 2013, when Lukasz Matula took over. Ceri John has had a lot of directorships, 78 of which are active, 13 closed, and 878 retired.
In June 2014, Matula registered the website bradlodge.com. So far though, the website doesn’t give us any information whatsoever.
A search on Open Corporates for Bradlodge Corporate Trading gives no results:
Bradlodge Corporate Trading’s website (bradlodgecorporatetrading.co.uk) was registered in October 2013, by someone called “christian ocean”. There is no mention of either Ceri John or Lukasz Matula on the website.
Bradlodge Corporate Trading lists two members of its team on its website: Peter Denninson and Rupert Wilkinson. Neither of these two is a director of Bradlodge Ltd, the company whose Company House records Bradlodge Corporate Trading links to from its website.
When Bradlodge Ltd was registered, the company’s name was P Denninson Consultancy Ltd. That, of course, doesn’t prove anything. The name on Bradlodge Corporate Trading’s website could easily be made up.
The description of Denninson’s experience on Bradlodge Corporate Trading’s website is a pack of lies. Denninson claims to have been an Executive Director with Man Group, but there is no mention of his name on the Man Group website and a Google search for “Peter Denninson” and “Man Group” brings up three results – two from LinkedIn and one from Bradlodge Corporate Trading.
The same three search results appear in a search for “Peter Denninson” and “Lehman Brothers”, which is where Denninson claims to have worked from 1995 to 2005.
Denninson also claims to have an honours degree in Banking and International Finance from Cambridge University. Which is funny, because Cambridge University doesn’t offer a course in Banking and International Finance.
And Denninson’s photograph on the Bradlodge Corporate Trading website is actually of Anders Palmgren, who is Head of Corporate Finance at a Swedish financial company called Catella.
The photograph of Rupert Wilkinson, supposedly the executive director of Bradlodge Corporate Trading has a very similar background to that of Denninson (also known as Palmgren), suggesting that the photograph is also someone who worked at Catella (although a search on Google Images didn’t bring up any matches).
Wilkinson claims to have worked for Standard Chartered Bank for 15 years and “was responsible for all operations from the Lebanon to Bangladesh”. But guess what? A Google search comes up with no evidence of this 15 years of high-powered work.
Wilkinson says he has an OBE. Guess what? A Google search reveals nothing about this. Wilkinson claims to have been awarded “a Dato’ship (a kinghthood) from the King of Malaysia”. And guess what? Google can tell us nothing about this.
Bradlodge Corporate Trading’s website is all about selling gold as an investment. A company brochure explains a concept called “Interception Trading”, which is a “propriety trading strategy exclusive to Bradlodge, developed and tested since 2002”. Which is impressive for a company that claims to have been registered in 2009 and that has only had a website since October 2013.
In fact, another company offers “Interception Trading”. It’s called Wenware Trading and its website is remarkably similar to that of Bradlodge Corporate Trading. The text of whole sections is identical.
You can read about some of the reactions to Wenware Trading’s cold calls (and Bradlodge Corporate Trading’s) here and here.
REDD-Monitor’s advice if you’ve handed over any money to Bradlodge Corporate Trading (or Wenware Trading) is to contact Action Fraud. And if either of these companies calls you, just put down the phone. Then contact Action Fraud:
I have been approached to buy into a “gold leasing” company called Lordmere Ltd to buy some GOLD UNITS by very pushy sellers.
After my solicitor did some research into the market he found out the wording is exactly the same as Bradlodges. The website is http://www.lordmere.co.uk
Mr Denninson and Mr Wilkinson’s biographies actually belong to Jeremy Green and Dato’ Neville Green from Quantum Capital Partners – see http://www.quantumcapital.co.uk/Team.html.
Another associated firm to be aware of in relation to Bradlodge is Ativa (Trade or Traders). Both registered to the same address but with different directors. There is a strong possibility that all of these companies (Bradlodge, Wenware Ativa etc) have used impersonation fraud in respect of the directors (i.e. they have stolen real but innocent people’s identities to create these companies).
I wish I had seen this website before I had any dealings with Bradlodge. They sold me a 3-month gold leasing contract and I have yet to see the return of capital two months after expiry of the contract. They want me to pay for a Personal Indemnity Bond before any funds can be repaid – good money after bad?
This company a appears to be associated with another dubious outfit called Brookepoint. Both seem to operate from (different) accommodation addresses: phoning the latter always gets an answering machine but never a callback. Nor do they respond to emails sent through their website.
Can any action be taken against the companies that publish the websites for these outfits?
I have reported Bradlodge to Action Fraud.
A company connected to Bradlodge is Brookepoint Ltd. I see from the Companies House website that this company is to be struck off the register of companies. Does this mean that anyone (like me) who is owed money by this company will lose any opportunity to recover it? Should one object to it being struck off and, if so, how?
Brookepoint Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary (one of 284) of Paramount Properties Ltd so, to be honest, this doesn’t look typical of a boiler-room type arrangement. It may be that there is someone out there using the Brookepoint name but I’d be surprised if this particular company is involved given the ownership structure.
I have a letter from Brookepoint signed by Lucy Bridge which refers to Bradlodge as my agents but stating that my guarantee of services has been underwritten by Brookepoint as facilitators of the lease (for gold bullion).
I have tried contacting Brookepoint by ‘phone but one only gets an answering machine, also by email through their website but to no avail. And now they are to be struck off the Companies House register of companies, so with them goes my money, I guess.
Bradlodge’s telephone “has been disconnected” despite it still showing on their website. A letter to their registered and published address was returned unopened, marked “gone away”.
I have just started a gold trade with Lordmere two weeks ago and wish I had seen this before sending the funds. The entire set up appears anonymous with no contact tel numbers and a website which has been taken down when I checked today. Has anyone had dealings with this company?
I wonder if this is related? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29044190
I have just had a cold call from someone calling himself Thomas, about an income generating investment with a company called Lordmere. Didn’t mention it at the time but the e-mail sent to me shows they are a bullion investment company. Told me I could check up on them on a website called companycheck. Haven’t done that but did go on to the companies house website and could find no entry for Lordmere and their own website gives nothing but an address. Needless to say I won’t be investing and wait, with anticipation,a return call from Thomas.
Correction they are registered with companies house but no real info about them
It appears Ceri John was a sole director of Lordmere until January this year.
Can anyone please tell me what the siuation is with bradlodge? I got a letter from them end of august but now the phone is disconnected and the mail are not returned.
Letters to their address in Kensington Church Street have been returned, marked “Gone Away”. The letter at the end of August mention a personal indemnity bond for return of funds, for which Bradlodge wanted a 25% upfront payment (!), allegedly refundable, but I never received the necessary paperwork which apparently could not be emailed to me. Scam after scam.
An other one has popped up…
Russell Knight Asset Management
Guy call steven giles called me today, to be fair as a scam artist he is pretty awful some of the rubbish he was spouting was laughtable. Though I am pretty sure there are propably others much better, I want to ensure this company is picked up on a google search by any would be investors to ensure that no one gets scammed by this company!!!!
http://russellknightasset.com/
Please do not invest
I entered into a gold leasing agreement(Bradlodge) like others & have experienced a similar outcome ie no settlement & also requests for me to send further payments to enable the release of the original investment. Not only that these people, when challenged, are extremely odious & are very cocky because at the end of the day they are getting away with the scam.
Hello Duped. Have you had any recent dealings with Bradlodge (in the last month?
Had a call from them recently regarding the ‘release monies’ scam plus my registered correspondence was returned ‘gone away’ .Have also reported them to action fraud.
I notice that a petition to wind-up Bradlodge Ltd of 58-60 Kensington Church Street has been lodged with the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division and was due to be heard on 22/09. I have no information as to the outcome, though.
I have just been contacted by someone calling himself Mr Bolton and saying he was calling from Bradlodge as they were in a position to repay me all the money owed plus some – provided I paid 20% “tax” (immediately) before the funds could be released! He said the company was moving from Royal Exchange (a building with offices leased on very short-term contracts) in London to 9 Devonshire Square and that’s why there is no telephone listing. The payment requested was to an account at Advanced Payment Solutions, but their fraud people could /would not give me the details of the account holder. Meanwhile, the Bradlodge website is still up and running.
Can confirm the same scenario with the same name used
the settlement quoted was over four times my original investment but I obviously declined his ‘generous’ offer at which point the conversation
took a turn for the worse & the verbal abuse began almost as if I had no right to protect my interests,
notwithstanding losses already incurred
Has another scam company come to the market I have been cold
called by a company called Brookcourt Trading who work in conjunction with Cotoxx Management they promise to pay me £16,529 after the sale of my carbon credits supposedly sold by Manor Trade now in liquidation if I first pay them £1,203 for PPI the money is supposed to be held in an escrow account just waiting for me to be daft enough to send them money if I dont send the money within a week the money will go to the company that bought the credits
Well here’s an odd thing. Brookcourt Trading is a wholly owned subsidiary of Paramount Properties (UK) Ltd who are also the parent company of Brookepoint Ltd, the underwriters of Bradlodge deals (as referred to above). Co-incidence? I think not.
Manor Trade are also a wholly owned susidiary of Paramount Properties (UK) Ltd. Having done a bit more research, it seems that Paramount Properties (UK) Ltd is the parent company of Paramount Company Formations Ltd who provide a nominee shareholder service in order to “… keep your personal
information off the public record while ensuring full legality.” See http://www.paramountformations.com/product/nominee-shareholder.
Fancy that!
Brookcourt Trading done a runner?
I am getting no answers from Brookcourt Trading’s telephone number for the last couple of days. They owe me money, due for payment yesterday but, surprise, no payment received and no answer from the persons calling themselves Derek Percy and Paul Richardson.
I got picked up by Brookcourt following the Bradlodge collapse but it seems they are just as devious.
Got a call the other day purporting to be from my bank’s fraud office about a payment to my account that had been attempted but failed. After a couple of silly security questions (the answers would have been known to the other party because they have my bank details), the caller wanted the verify how many accounts I had and what were the approximate balances. He then suggested I contact the other party to sort out any problems. The other party was Brookcourt and, guess what, they were asking for another payment, roughly the same as the total in my accounts. What a surprise!
The caller came from a witheld number not an 0845 number as used by my bank, and referred to the Fraud Office and not the Fraud Desk. On checking with my bank this morning, their Fraud Desk had no record of contacting me.
The reason given for wanting a further payment to unblock the payment was that there had been a mistake at Brookcourt by Derek Percy (many apologies) and although the payment had been scheduled, their system recalled it because of the “missing” payment.
These guys are really good, hopefully Action Fraud are, too.
Thanks for the Russell Knight alert. I was phoned by Michael Stevens – pretty credible actually but something didn’t quite add up. Your info helped me to be sure
Really glad I have read this thread. I was approached by Lordmere today. Offering returns of 4%pcm. As we have all been told if the offer sounds too good to be true then it probably is. I shall not be investing. Thankyou to all who raised their experiences and concerns.
I have been contacted by Lordmere quite a few times now about their gold investments. These are scammers and do not part with your money if you don’t want to lose it.