TONY HETHERINGTON: ‘Zombie’ Winbebuyers goes beneath for THIRD time

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, combating readers corners, revealing the reality that lies behind closed doorways and profitable victories for many who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how one can contact him beneath. 

Farce: Ben Revell ran three companies, and all have collapsed

B.R. writes: We are victims of Winebuyers. 

I met Ben Revell at a wine honest and fell for his scheme. My firm despatched a consignment of wine. We know Winebuyers bought a few of our wine, but it surely has not paid us. 

Numerous calls and emails went unanswered, and Winebuyers even deducted prices from our bank card for months regardless of the cancellation of our contract.

Tony Hetherington replies: Most phoenix corporations rise from the ashes simply as soon as, however there appears to be nearly no restrict to the variety of instances wine vendor Ben Revell can write off an organization, begin once more, after which depart recent wreckage behind him. 

I warned final September: ‘Beware of the Zombie’. At the time, Revell was working the identical enterprise for the third time beneath totally different firm names – and now it has collapsed too. 

When he first set out as an internet wine dealer, Revell fashioned Winebuyers Ltd. He charged wine producers and retailers to seem on his winebuyers.com web site, and he promoted gross sales of their wine to the general public.

Shoppers would pay Revell’s firm, and most acquired their wine, however more and more the producers and retailers complained they have been left unpaid.

Winebuyers Ltd went into liquidation in 2021 with money owed of round £1.5 million. Just because it failed, a brand new firm was registered, known as Winebuyers Group Ltd. It purchased a number of the failed firm’s belongings, together with its buyer information and web site. 

To a lot of the surface world, nothing had gone mistaken as the web site was nonetheless there. On paper, the brand new firm had a brand new boss, Kyle Fordham, however behind the scenes the strings have been pulled by Revell who described himself as Chief Executive.

Once Winebuyers Group was up and working, Fordham stop and has not been heard of since within the wine commerce. Revell formally took over as director in March final 12 months, and in June, I reported there have been unpaid court docket judgments, that it had didn’t file accounts legally due, and that client web sites have been full of complaints.

By July, the corporate had fallen into administration, blaming Covid, Brexit, the price of dwelling, a scarcity of glass because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, in fact, local weather change. What occurred subsequent was farcical. 

The Administrators of the collapsed Winebuyers Group bought a few of its belongings, together with its buyer database and web site, to a brand new firm known as Elysian Ventures Ltd, which supplied £100,000. Elysian was arrange by Revell, who then signed it over to an odd offshore firm known as Ophidian Corp, based mostly within the Seychelles, the place its possession is hid.

Again, to outsiders wanting on the Winebuyers web site, it was enterprise as standard – till a number of weeks in the past, that’s. Last month, Revell stop as director and the web site stopped working. Elysian Ventures has now gone into Receivership. This newest collapse is as a result of Elysian handed over solely half of the £100,000 it was imagined to pay to the Administrators of Winebuyers Group.

The Administrators – from the foremost insolvency agency Begbies Traynor – have issued a scathing report, saying that when Elysian Ventures didn’t pay up, they demanded the return of the Winebuyers web site and every little thing else lined by the acquisition settlement. Elysian replied that it was unable to entry the IT system working its personal web site. Begbies Traynor then employed outdoors IT specialists, however say Elysian offered ‘simply sufficient data to present the looks of cooperation with out enabling us to maneuver issues ahead’.

A report on the conduct of Winebuyers Group and its administrators has been submitted to the Department for Business. Begbies Traynor provides cryptically it’s in contact with the Department ‘to offer such additional data as they could require to help their very own continued investigations’.

The backside line to all that is that it exhibits how only one particular person can management three successive corporations, all of which collapse with large money owed, whereas on the similar time he makes use of only one enterprise title: Winebuyers. However you take a look at it, our firm oversight system simply does not work.

Ben Revell couldn’t be contacted for remark. If he will get in contact, I shall be glad to report it.

Revenue wants actual individuals!

Ms S.C. writes: I’m treasurer of a small cat rescue charity. 

We are registered for VAT and submit returns to HM Revenue & Customs. 

Since our newest refund declare was submitted we’ve got not acquired the near-£5,000 which HMRC itself mentioned was owed to us.

Tony Hetherington replies: The largest downside anybody faces with the taxman these days is getting by means of to somebody who will truly hearken to your query, not to mention present a solution. 

Out of pocket: The largest downside anybody faces with the taxman these days is getting by means of to somebody who will truly hearken to your query, not to mention present a solution

Revenue bosses behave as if the reply to each query is displayed on their web site, which is clearly unfaithful. You tried many instances to cellphone the Revenue. You have been fortunate to get by means of, however if you did, you have been merely requested automated questions after which despatched an internet hyperlink to an online web page which confirmed your refund had not been paid – which was precisely why you have been calling. 

You emailed a number of instances and acquired responses saying a reply can be despatched inside 15 days. Of course, it wasn’t. You posted onerous copy letters. They have been by no means acknowledged.

I requested officers on the Revenue head workplace to look into this. They discovered that your charity modified its financial institution particulars, and knowledgeable the Revenue, at about the identical time because the refund was due. 

The refund went to your previous account and bounced again to the taxman, and that’s the place it stayed. Nobody forwarded it to your new account. The Revenue has apologised. 

Your refund of £4,799 has now been despatched to your new account, together with £36 curiosity due to the delay. Members of the HMRC Board please word that no web site recommendation or recorded message might ever have resolved this downside. Please present educated human beings who can deal with actual issues.

If you consider you’re the sufferer of monetary wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or electronic mail [email protected]. Because of the excessive quantity of enquiries, private replies can’t be given. Please ship solely copies of authentic paperwork, which we remorse can’t be returned.