We’ve been bloody scammed!

[Deedeedocket]

Dh is a plumber, a company got in touch with him and interview him for a contract to carry out work on houses on our local postcode. The deal is you pay a sum up front and they send the work through rather than take a commission. Think property management.

I didn’t like the look of it so dh got a solicitor to look over the contract. Solicitor looks it over says it all seems fine. We pay the fee £2200.

It’s a scam, the company is registered with companies house but it seems this scam
Has been going on for a few years. They keep changing names. I’ve now been in touch with five other tradespeople who have suffers the same and that is just the tool of the iceberg.

First of all we feel fucking stupid, we are a young business and obviously can’t afford this.

I’ve reported to HMRC, trading standards who
passed me into action fraud, rogue traders on bbc and even the sun! But am at a loss as to what to do.

Dh even underwent ‘training’ then two months later after chasing for work, the website went off line, phone number went off line. Gone.

Any idea on what we can do?

Looking over a contract does not mean carrying out checks on the commercial wisdom of entering into the arrangement (not directed at you op, but some posters seem to have a very strange idea of what lawyers do).

Yes, solicitors will do a precise task eg might be asked to check a contract or instead might be asked to do due diligence and hire investigators to check into a company. They are different jobs and will come with different fees.

My first question would be in the contract what is named? It sounds like a limited company. Is there any way the contract could be with an individual eg check exactly how in line one and at the signature it appears.

May be try a small claim via moneyclaims online for the sum bringing the claim against the individual shareholder/director but first check if he has any assets eg if you have his address pay £3 for a land registry search to see who owns his house and if it is mortgaged.

@xenia if the contract is with a limited company then it is highly unlikely the corporate veil will be lifted to allow a personal claim against a director/shareholder. This is the downside of company law in my view

Indeed but sometimes the contract is not clear - I looked at one last week which under parties had an individual and a limited company name - obviously a mistake - so who it was with was anyone's guess - in those sorts of cases and with a kind county court judge it might be worth a personal legal action against the person but not if they have disappeared or have no assets.

Contact your bank ASAP - they can contact the receiving bank and if any money is still there, the account can be frozen.

You may also have a claim under the CRM code which can consider (amongst other things) whether the receiving bank carried out due diligence when opening the scammer's account. Talk to your bank about this.

@LApprentiSorcier this won’t be the case where money was handed over to a legitimate business in relation to a contract. The issue here is breach of contract and the fact that company law allows people to close a limited company leaving creditors in the lurch. It happens all the time unfortunately

The OP would lose nothing by asking, though VanCleef.