My mum was convinced to put £25,000 in a secret investment scheme: TONY HETHERINGTON investigates
Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
M.G. writes: My mother, in her 80s, invested £25,000 with Thurlow Wealth Ltd in February 2022, after director Ian Hill drafted powers of attorney for her and my father.
She is not an experienced investor. She believed that as her money was placed in an 'insured plan', it was protected.
After a few interest payments were made, and despite withdrawal requests since 2023, no money has been repaid and no further interest has been received.
Tony Hetherington replies: Your mother dealt with Ian Hill's other company, Elite Wills & Estate Planning, but both are based at his address in Worthing, West Sussex. Like Hill, neither is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
When he prepared a Power of Attorney document for your mother, he learned her assets are enough for her to be described as a High Net Worth Individual. This means she is outside normal investor protection rules and he can offer schemes that would otherwise be banned.
Stating tight-lipped: Ian Hill
The scheme Hill offered is like something from Alice In Wonderland. Your mother signed a secret agreement which Hill provided, saying she would lend Thurlow Wealth £25,000, repayable in February 2023, with interest said vaguely to be 'a nominated 3 per cent per month, subject to performance'.
Hill says the cash went into an 'exclusive Insured Private Placement Programme'. He claims investors' money is safe because 'the funds themselves are held in a fully insured escrow account and not actually used for trading'.
According to Hill, the cash allows traders to borrow up to ten times as much from 'major banking partners'. That is then used to buy bonds and loan notes at prices that guarantee a profit without risk. Hill adds that the trading group is underwritten 'by one of the world's largest government-owned AAA-rated insurance companies, who are fully insured by a guarantee from the US Treasury and then further underwritten by the US Federal Reserve'.
And the risk-free profits are huge! Hill says that assuming just four trades are made each week, over 40 weeks, with profits averaging one per cent a time, the annual return will be 160 per cent. And by borrowing ten times the amount deposited, the return soars to 1,600 per cent. If true, can someone tell Rachel Reeves the Magic Money Tree has been found – and it's in Worthing!
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Now for a dose of reality. Both of Hill's firms have failed to file legally due accounts with Companies House. He told me: 'My accountants are in the process of drawing these up.'
Accounts for Thurlow show that in 2023 it owed £1.6 million to creditors, balanced by almost exactly the same in assets. As it cannot repay even £25,000 to your mother, my guess is the assets are the money it deposited to back the bond traders.
But who are these traders? Hill won't say. Where is investors' money deposited? Hill refused to say. Who controls it? He refused to say. Which banks and insurers are involved? Again, he refused to say.
In fact, he told me that if I reported this, his investors could lose their money and this would be on my conscience. Despite refusing to tell his own investors who has their cash, Hill says he will tell all to the police.
So that is the solution I suggest. The people Hill has trusted may be swindling him and your mother, so ask the police to investigate and let's see whether Hill finally names names. If he does, I'll report it.
Sky phone mix-up is good news for charity
M.I. writes: I tried to reduce my payments to Sky for TV, broadband and landline phone, with disastrous results.
As super-fast broadband does not exist in my area, I asked to pay ordinary broadband charges. I also accepted a lower landline connection charge by agreeing to pay 27p a minute for calls.
Now Sky has disconnected my landline and withdrawn my phone number.
Cut off: Sky has disconnected M.I.'s landline and withdrawn their phone number
Tony Hetherington replies: You are in your late 80s and told me you did not want to lose the landline number you have had for years. You spent hours talking to Sky and emailing them, but it proved hard to explain the overlapping problems that arose simply from wanting to cut your costs.
Sky told me that you had two separate contracts. One was for broadband and landline services, the other for Sky TV. When you first asked to pay less, the Sky adviser suggested you merge the contracts and could cut costs further by moving to a Digital Voice service.
I know you did not understand that this meant your phone calls would arrive over the internet, but this is why you lost your landline and your number. After I explained your situation, Sky offered to cut your monthly bills by £20 for the next two years, plus you have accepted £100 as a gesture of goodwill which, being happy with the outcome, you are donating to a food bank.
If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
