Lost investment money? Can anything be done?

[Whathaveilost]

Can any one advice on what I should do.
A couple of years ago apub shut down and a community got together to re open it. They needed to raise funds.
A few months before they were ready to take over the keys they were £7,000 short of target.
We expressed an interest in becoming a shareholder and a guy came round to see us ( March 2016). He explained that we could withdraw the money from them at anytime and get it back and it was due to yield a small interest rate annually ( we weren't bothered too much bout this , we wanted to help get the pub running.)
Paperwork was supposed to be issued in August 2016. I didn't hear anything and mentioned it to the guy and he said he was sorting it out.
The money has gone into the official account via bank transfer.

There was an incident a couple of months ago which resulted in the guy being removed from the committee and I get the vibe he isn't welcome that much into the pub anymore.

This leaves me with a problem of how can I get my money back ,if at all. It wasn't a huge sum, just a few thousand pounds but I would like some, if not all of it back.

Added problem, in February this year my server lost all my emails. The only proof I have is the transaction from my bank to theirs.

Is there anything I can do or should I just forget about it. I have been in touch with the secretary. I didn't get a reply so chased that and she said she had handed it over to the directors.

So you didn't receive a receipt or share certificates? Presumably you were purchasing shares in the company running the pub? What kind of company is it - a limited company or a Community Interest Company (CIC), for example? Have you looked on the Companies House website to see if you are a shareholder in the Annual Report/Confirmation Statement?

Sounds to me as though your money may have just been treated as a donation rather than as an investment.

Unless I have misunderstood, your investment would earn you a small interest rate annually, it would entitle you to dividends if there was sufficient surplus at the end of the financial year.

Don't give up yet. You refer to paying into an officialbank account (so not the personal account of the man who has left the committee). Do you know the name of the account? Don't post it here but does it say eg "Rescue of local pub company limited" or not the word Ltd? It just makes a difference in law what kind of entity you paid the money to.

Eg it might be a group of people but no registered limited company so an "unincorporated association" or it might be a limited company (the latter you can look up at companies house on line). Ah I see wow above has said much the same.

It sounds like the pub is up and running. If it has a website have a look at the terms at the bottom - in theory it should give the full name and registered number if a company of the pub. If the pub is registered for VAT you can do an EU search to find the exact name of the entity which is the VAT registrant (although they may have leased it to someone else). You can also for £3 do a Land Registry search to find out who owns that land - both the freehold and the leasehold title (2 searches or it may just be 100% freehold),. I would do that first - it will take you about 10 minutes at most on-line and is worth it with £7k at stake.

Once you have those details then it woudl be worth going into the pub and just having a chat with the manager to try to get a bit of information about who runs it who are the shareholders etc. If it is a limited company ( you mention shares above) then probably you can see on the companieshouse website who the major shareholders/controllers are. If you could find out what your 7k was eg if it was 10th of the money they needed perhaps they were intending to make you a 10% shareholder. You could also see if you can find out who has taken all the shares and not given them to the people who invested.

Thank you for the replies.
I will read through in more detail when I get back from work tonight. It was £3,000 I invested. They were £7,000 short and I it in £3,000 in at Easter 2016 and the certificates were due out in August.
I have just checked my bank and I paid it into ' save the........' doesn't say anything about limited.

The pub is up and running and appears to be doing well.

The guy that had a fall out with them was ' the face' of the group and got the ball rolling and was very passionate about it and held fund raising gigs and the like. We have a mutual friend and he he explained how he knew me ' that I was a shareholder of th.......'

Thank you both for the information so far and I'll look properly tonight.

Okay the bank statement does not help. So the pub would be the next thing to check. I was advising someone last week on a pub contract actually and I was trying to find out who owned what. The pub might have a website or a facebook group which might give the proper legal name - eg Red Lion Ltd ( or Jane Smith trading as Red Lion (that would be a sole trader)

People using "shareholder" probably means it is a limited company. It is certainly worth investigating, at the last you should get your £3k back.

Hi , Thanks for the additional information and help.
I have had a look on their website for info but it is out of date. I had a look on the companies websit but nothing much is submitted.

Would you mind if I PM'd you what I have found.
I don't want to take advantage but I have no knowledge of anything like this and think I have been a bit naive!!

Yes by all means do. I always thought I would like to be a detective and this bit of my work is sometimes a bit like that - just working out which legal entity contracts are with etc.

Hi thanks Lucy, I'm at work until tomorrow afternoon so will send something when i get home.