Following the publication of the article “Just In: Judge Herrington Issues Judgement” last Monday, one of our readers sent the link to Barclays Partner Finance. To our surprise, she did receive a response, albeit a very short one but a response nonetheless and within a couple of days.
It was what we expected, total denial by BPF that there are very grave similarities in the products sold by Silverpoint and Azure. The answer is given and signed by “Your Barclays Team”, notice no person has deemed it necessary to sign their name, was just one paragraph.
“The article you have provided relates to a court case pertaining to purchases made with Azure resorts not Silverpoint. Reference is made to purchases made with Silverpoint in the article by the author, however, the actual judgement by Judge Herrington only covers Azure accounts.”
We know the case is about Azure, well it is not actually about Azure, it is about the FCA siding with BPF by issuing a “validation Order” to cover up a substantial legal and financial mistake. The fact that it went in front of a Judge, who in his wisdom believed that this order may have caused serious harm to consumers, told them to think again.
They did look into this and basically caved in, BPF then also included all loan agreements for the Azure product. Was it we have to ask, because Judge Timothy Herrington was making references to the product itself, the way it was sold along with the loan agreements or was it BPF realising they could come under greater legal scrutiny?
Considering how all the “consumers” statements are the same as can be seen from the Judge’s comment, (over 1,400 of them),
“It should be noted that the Regulated Agreements were entered into in order to finance the purchase of timeshare contracts at a resort in Malta. All of the Applicants alleged that they were given a “hard sell” by the Azure Group and encouraged to take out regulated loan agreements to purchase the timeshares with the promise that the timeshares would rapidly increase in value which could quickly be sold for profit, and the loans repaid. They allege that these promises have failed to materialise, consumers have largely been unable to re-sell their timeshare packages and have been left significantly out of pocket and with outstanding loans. The consumers contend that misrepresentations were made to them during the sales process by the Broker and that the Regulated Agreements (and the underlying timeshares) were mis-sold.”
AIT is of the opinion that it is a “cave-in” by BPF in order to prevent a flood of legal actions which would be even more costly for them.
Any “client” of Silverpoint will recognise exactly what Judge Herrington is saying, after all, they have all been through it, the same “hard sell” the same lies on “investment” and the same “upgrades” to secure previous “faltering investments”. All sold with loan agreements through BPF brokered by the same salespeople, (conflict of interest?).
Fine, it may be those loan agreements were made by “authorised” brokers, which “validates” them, but the one very important point is being ignored by BPF and the FCA, the hundreds of court cases against Silverpoint in Tenerife. The fact that the Supreme Court has ruled against Silverpoint is also being ignored.
The product sold in the Azure case began life in Tenerife under Silverpoint, previously Resort Properties, it was then rolled out at their “sister sales deck”, Azure in Malta, (they are related companies as part of Limora Group). Silverpoint even sent sales staff to Malta, some of those names appear on both Tenerife and Malta sales agreements.
This product and the company that peddled it has been subject to hundreds of court cases in Spain, all found in favour of the consumer. It is public record that Silverpoint sold their “timeshare product” as an “investment”, making the consumer believe they were purchasing “property investments”. Remember, timeshare is not an investment, it is not a purchase in property, it is the purchase of “usage of time in a specific property”.
The following video is from an actual court case in Spain, it shows the plaintiff, Mrs Shirley Wilson, and the defendant Silverpoint, represented by their Sales Director, David Taylor and their respective lawyers.
At time frame 2:27, Mrs Wilson gives her testimony, she clearly states that she believed she was purchasing an “investment”, not “timeshare”. Where did this belief come from, if she didn’t think it was “timeshare”?
The answer is not rocket science, that is what she was told by the sales staff and reinforced by the sales managers and directors, just like everyone else.
Silverpoint Court Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksff6yofqJs
She won her case and eventually won in the Supreme Court after Silverpoint appealed, that was the case that “broke the camels back”. Since then it has been a steady stream of losses for Silverpoint at every turn and has culminated in the “liquidation” of the company.
Now, this brings us to the number of complaints made regarding the loan agreements brokered by Silverpoint and the myriad of their own “finance” companies to BPF and the FCA.
This has been going on for over ten years, and the number of complaints made must reflect the number of cases going to court at least, on 8 June, we revealed that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) alone, which reviews appeals, has received over 13,000 (Silverpoint) cases in the past 10 years. So why has no one put two & two together and thought here is a serious problem?
The evidence is there to show that fraud on a massive scale has been perpetrated, all financed through Barclays Partner Finance.
Silverpoint has either pulled the proverbial wool over the eyes of BPF in doing business with them, or BPF went in without doing any checks or reviews of their relationship over the years, all they saw was the money, the same as Silverpoint.
Surely if the contracts have been declared illegal, the product itself illegal all in a court of law and the fact Silverpoint is in liquidation and undergoing stringent investigations involving illegal & possibly criminal activity on an international scale, Why do they still deny anything is wrong?
The simple answer is it is all about the money, considering how much the Azure debacle is going to cost BPF, and that is just the repayments, imagine the cost if all Resort Properties & Silverpoint clients were to make a claim.
We leave you to draw your own conclusions about this story, but we suspect you will come to the same ones.
We hope you had a good weekend, Baby Dog still wants to go out, it makes a change from sleeping.
