Three Betting Companies Wound Up After Investigation

The Insolvency Service has this week forced three sports betting companies to be wound up in the high court after their investigators revealed that there was no evidence to suggest that the companies had ever paid out any winnings to their customers.

Montgomery Enterprises and Indeleck UK Limited were both owned by Wayne Montgomery, a man who had previous allegations against him back in 2005 for similar scams.  The companies traded as Belmont porting Services and Preferential Sports Investment, they would place bets on sporting events on behalf of customers and take commission out of the winnings.

The third company, Heathridge Capital Management appears to have been set up for the same purpose and has shown to be connected to Montgomery Enterprises and Indeleck.

The investigations uncovered that the companies worked using specific, targeted mail shots that invited customers to invest money in them, and use their betting expertise and research in order to make a profit, the mail shots invited potential customers to invest anything from £250 right up to £12000, with a proportion being used for each bet.

The companies claimed that, on average, customers could make approximately 20-25% profit on their investments minus commissions.

One mail shot went even further than that and said, “Belmont Sporting Services will pay £525 per month for each club member for every £250 they invest as their stake money. We expect to win on average £210 every month for every £100 invested by each member,” claiming over 100% profit for investors.

Bets were selected using a software system and collective bets would be placed for all customers who wanted to bet on a particular day.

Wayne Montgomery has previously led Ventura Racing, Regency Ventures Group, Sigma and Integra Club, all of which adopted a similar tactic in attracting investors.  Once investors were on board with these companies, many would later receive a letter saying that their cash was gone following ‘a run of bad luck.’

The Advertising Services Authority (ASA) in 2005 upheld two complaints against Ventura regarding claims that had been made in Sigma mail shots.  Ventura then failed to produce the evidence requested from the ASA of profits made from its betting system.

The investigations has uncovered a number of wrong doings at the three companies, including a deliberate lack of transparency to customers which mislead them as to who was in control of their investments or even which company they were dealing with.

The insolvency service found that over £280,000 had gone through the companies’ accounts between November ’08 and October last year, and £516,000 placed in bets.   

Company accounts failed to distinguish transactions between the companies, identify customers or to establish details of investments, wagers and winnings. 

Investigators could also find no evidence to support the companies’ claim they had made returns to investors and also didn’t find any evidence to suggest any monies whatsoever had been paid out to customers for their winnings.

The company attempted to claim that the winnings were paid in cash to customers but no copies of any letter or statement which would have accompanied such winnings to support this claim was produced during the investigation.

The three companies have now been wound up in the High Court.

Posted at 03:54PM Jul 26, 2010 by Marc Stenton in Insolvency  |  Comments[0]