As announced by Mindtimeshare on the 5th of October, today the official press release has been published by The Insolvency Service:
08 October 2012 15:45
Seven connected companies, which mis-sold membership of a concierge holiday scheme to the public while ostensibly conducting meetings to propose action against timeshare deals, have been wound up in the public interest by the High Court in London.
The order to wind up the companies, five of which were registered in Seychelles and two in the UK, followed an investigation by the Company Investigations team of the Insolvency Service in London.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills petitioned to wind up all the companies, collectively known as Club Class, as they were all intimately involved in the marketing of the scheme in the UK.
One of the English companies, Bridge View Consultants Ltd sold the Club Class product to the public in the UK at meetings which were ostensibly arranged to address people who had been mis-sold timeshares.
At these meetings, timeshare owners were encouraged to sign up to a group action against the timeshare industry to be conducted by an organisation called International Timeshare Refund Action (ITRA).
The court heard that instead, the ITRA presentation became a Club Class presentation in which consumers were informed there was a “one-off” opportunity for them to irrevocably relinquish their timeshares in part-payment for the substantial cost of the Club Class membership, which ranged from around £7,000 to £15,000. Consumers were unaware in advance that this was the true purpose of the meeting.
During the meetings, some lasting up to six hours, consumers were put under immense pressure to exchange their timeshares, which they were told were essentially worthless, but could be set off against the cost of their holiday club membership.
Consumers were also told that their timeshare liabilities would continue in perpetuity and pass to their heirs. The principal inducement was that the Club Class group would arrange for the release of the consumer from these onerous liabilities by effecting transfer or other means. Cash-backs were also offered as another sales promotional tool.
In fact, consumers’ timeshares were simply returned to the resort owner and no real efforts were made to assume their liability. As a result, consumers continued to receive maintenance demands from the resort owners. A representative of the Seychelles companies , Dennis Gilson, , admitted in court that because of the onerous terms that had to be complied with to receive a cash payment, the cash-back offers were the equivalent of a spot-the-ball competition.
In making the winding-up orders, the Court found that in addition to the mis-selling and lack of commercial probity which generated a significant volume of complaints, there was a lack of transparency within the operations of the companies. The companies’ officers also failed to co-operate with the investigation.
Commenting on the case, David Hill an Investigation Supervisor with The Insolvency Service said:
“These companies were set up with the aim of duping consumers, who in some cases had already suffered from unfair timeshare deals, by using slick patter for what was in reality the selling of an illusion. There was nothing investors could gain from paying to these companies.
“This action shows that The Insolvency Service will investigate and close down companies set up to scam the public”
Ends
Notes to Editors
- Details of the seven companies wound up are as follows: UK – Club Class Concierge Ltd and Bridge View Consultants Ltd. Their registered office is 9 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 9SR.2. Seychelles – Club Class Concierge plc, Club Class International plc, Club Class Holdings Ltd, Club Class Corporation plc and Club Class plc. Their registered legal address, since registration, has been situated at 2Fl Allied Bldg, Annex Francis Rachel St Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles.
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Mindtimeshare 
Would like to know what their TIN tax identification number was as trying to reclaim money back from Spain via the HMRC companies who were supposedly reselling my Holiday Clubs
Had request for £95 plus £ 285 to cancel club class membership. I ended up raising my voice to say, no way was club class getting any more money out of us. The manager at the other end just shouted me down. Then he left a message saying I had to pay and even if I went to the queen we would still have to pay. The letter was signed Maxwell Hamilton.
The same happened to me as Liz describes. I have started to get letters every week from these people demanding money for alleged non payment of annual subscription to Club Class. I told James Morris to F*** off when he started to shout at me on the phone. Today I get a letter from Maxwell Hamilton threatening to take action to recover the money allegedly owed to Leisure Alliance PLC. I did not know there was an opportunity to make a claim for the mis-selling of the Timeshare and then subsequent membership with the companies involved. Can anyone share any further information on this?
Club Class and all their “incarnations” are no more-but they are still e-mailing people asking for membership fees.
Anyone who receives this request should not even acknowledge them and certainly not make a payment.
We totally agree!
Thanks
Customer Care
We have had a number of firms ringing us up (including Excalibur) saying they can sell or get our membership money back but they always want money up front, do not send it, you will not see it again
We bought into Club Class in Tenerife in 2006 but as soon as they had our money we were unable to get in touch with them – now in 2012 we have started receiving threatening & bullying phone calls & emails demanding us to pay £750 in back admin fees plus cancellation fees immediately due to the “seriousness” of our debt “before it unnecessarily accelerated to your own detriment”.
we have just received such a letter and two calls with a threat of bailiffs
We bought into Clubclass PLC recently – August this year to the tune of £8000 – thought we were about to go on our first ” Freestay” holiday flying from Bristol on 1st November to Teneriffe, for 14 days. After being away for the weekend I have opened my mail this eve to find the news.. Have no idea if flights or accommodation have actually been booked- cant get hold of anyone- e-mails bouncng back and offices closed – including my credit card company where by the flights were alledgedly booked from, tho it appears the money has not been debited from my account yet.!! Cant get hold of Ryanair other than on premium £1 per minute line. My partner has just come off the phone to Andrew Dixon ClubClass PLC presonal number who has assured him that our flights and accommodation for November will be honoured along with our contract. Pauline, our personal advisor will ring me tomorrow to confirm all booking details and flight reference numbers. Meanwhile have no idea if we have a holiday booked or not.
Despite clearly informing Maxwell Hamilton that we would not be making any further payments we received another letter from him today. He has requested our payments be brought up to date otherwise Club Class will pursue us until the ‘debt’ has been cleared.
Is he cracking laughs?!!!
I have been cold called by a company called Maintenance Release Services wanting to set up a meeting in my home to help me get rid of my timeshare. I cannot find any information about this company other than it was formed in June 2012. Do you have any reports?
Well done everyone at Mindtimeshare and to everyone who gave me such useful advice. Club Class rot in hell!
Hi, have just had a telephone call from a company called `Silver Linings Security ` offering £14.000 for our Club Class Concierge `membership. On a pretext of contacting my absent husband, I ended the call with the person calling back in a few minutes. He rang at least 6 times, but I didn`t answer the call. I tried to check on Mindtimeshare`s website, but nothing came up. He wanted money on deposit to secure as a bond… He said it was the law??? He knew about Beauregard’s deposit of £1800 and said he would repay this. I await your reply, thanks you
A great result and hopefully the end of Club Class ‘con’cierge and its other sister companies who have ripped many of us off for years .
Funny thought that there are still companies out there who are trying to swindle money out of us by promises of ‘mystery’ buyers etc. I had one (Excalibur ) last week who told me there was £10k waiting for my CCC membership!!!
My reply is always the same “yes I am I interested, please send me a certified bank cheque for the amount minus any related fees and when it has cleared through my bank I will sign any amount of paperwork relinquishing my ties to Club Class Concierge”.
The response is always negative – funny that!!!
I have had an Elite membership with Club Class Concierge for several years and have paid my 2012 fee only a month or two ago. We have had some good holidays with them. I have also negotiated a sale of this to Vacation Outlet. Are you now saying I have lost all my money?
Thanks
Lawrence
This is great news about Club Class, even though I have lost money! Also ITRA are a load of cr**** and sc*****s so never trust them; once they get their hands on your money you will never hear from them again. Don`t touch them with a barge pole, but what would one expect being connected to Club Class?
Hi Lawrence – yes it looks that way. We have had our membership for a couple of years and have had some good holidays but – all of a sudden things became harder to book and everything seemed to be booked up no matter how unusual the holiday and time. Have you paid anything at all up front to Vacation Outlet? Did they offer you a great price, more than you paid? If so go to your bank and report it as a fraud – Barclaycard are dealing with one like that for us. I am furious about it but there is not much you can do, these people are clever crooks and are using the geographical gap to dupe people.