The collapse of a UK property and construction firm has left investors out of pocket to the tune of £30 million. The company has been accused of hiding its losses, using funds raised from investors, some of whom had invested six figure sums including pension funds without security.
The JVIP Group (or Joint Ventures in Property), based in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, was run by Peter Dabner, Dick Dabner and Paul Bohill from 2014. They made regular appearances in a property magazine, where they described their business model, and advised other property entrepreneurs.
Investors were told that their money would be used to purchase or develop property for which they would receive an annual return of 10%. In a corporate video, Peter Dabner said: “We established Joint Ventures in Property in 2002 and since then we’ve been involved in delivering 150 different sites”, while his father Dick said they were: “delivering inspirational homes at every level”.
Investors became concerned during 2020, when there were sporadic repayments and the company contacted investors to request lower interest rate returns and payment holidays. Despite this, in late 2021 the father and son were still trying to secure more investors.
The company emailed investors on 31st December 2021 to inform them that, while they restructured the company over the next three months, no money could be taken out and no interest payments would be made.
Almost 20 of the companies within the group went into administration in January 2022 and JVIP Group Limited itself went into administration in March. At that time there were 106 creditors and unsecured creditors were owed £5.6 million. Before calling in administrators, the group’s management had attempted to raise more finance from unsecured creditors, crowdfunding and an asset management company.
An April 2022, a report on JVIP Group Limited, filed with Companies House by adminstrators, said that “quite often, rather than funding specific projects it appears that monies borrowed have been used to fund overheads, interest payments and redemptions across the associated companies.” It went on to suggest that “Investor money may have been funding substantial losses over a considerable period of time.”
Another issue raised by the administrator was the sum of over half a million pounds that JVIP Group transferred into Peter Dabner’s account.
The administrator said that it was clear in January 2022 that insufficient liquidity existed for the company to continue trading. The pandemic had contributed to the problems by delaying projects and this was exacerbated by the rising costs of materials and penalty interest rates. No accounts were filed in the final two years for many of the group companies.
The investors’ concerns are now being investigated. The administrator has summarised the current position: assets £43 million, secured lending £31 million and unsecured lending £29 million, leaving a net position of -£17 million, with property investors fearing they will never see their money again.