Malt whisky help line homepage

The Helpline was set up in 1998 by Paul Smith a 53 year old lawyer from Cumbria to assist investors who had been caught by the Great Whisky Scam of the 1990's. The D.T.I. had closed down up to 35 companies selling whisky as an investment on the grounds of gross misrepresentation. Thousands of investors had purchased casks after recommendations by the 'quality' press only to find that they were worth only a fraction of what they had paid for them. Since 1998 Paul has recovered over £5.5 million for investors who were fortunate enough to pay their deposits by credit card and assisted well over 4000 people. A bottling company has also been set up to help investors who have been left with their casks. You can now bottle for your own personal consumption or sell through retail outlets as an alternative to selling to whisky brokers at a considerable loss. Advice is available with regard to the wine investment scam and associated penny share scam involving companies like City Vintners, Goldman Williams and Goldberg Kravitz

To take advantage of Helpline facilities you can join for an annual fee of £10 pounds (£15 pounds for those resident abroad).

Any queries please email me on mwbh@ukgateway.net or phone UK (0)1539 729580

Welcome to the 9th issue of Uisge Beatha.

It is now 10 years since the whisky scam companies were at the height of their sales. The consequence is that nearly all the casks of whisky sold are at least 10 12 or 15 years old and ready for sale or bottling. Over the past year we have sold an ever increasing number of casks to reduce the losses suffered by investors. Alternatively many investors have chosen to bottle their own casks - we have bottled 15 year old oaked Macallan, 15 year old Highland Park, 15 year old Littlemill, 15 year old Bowmore, 12 year old Bruichladdich, 10 year old Speyside and 10 year old Tobermory to name just a few. The majority we have bottled at cask strength, a few at 46 and just a few we have filtered to 40. Personally I prefer to bottle at cask strength - straight out of the casks with "now't taken out and now't put in". Your own water can then be added to taste. Before bottling we always advise investors to obtain a small sample from the bond normally at a cost of about £25 - just to ensure that you are not wasting a further £3000. I have to say that only a very few casks have not been worth bottling. Much of the Speyside (Grand Tully) and Tobermory single malts have reached 10 years of age. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Speyside single malt it is quite a distinctive single malt and well worth bottling. So come on bottle your whisky, drink it and give it to your friends for next Christmas. This way you will at least prevent the scotch whisky industry from taking some of your hard earned cash. Go to Tesco or Asda to buy your scotch and you are just increasing their profits. This issue we have produced a special supplement on the land banking issue which appears to be the sequel to the ostrich scam, the whisky scam, the art scam and the wine scam and in some cases featuring the same players.

BREAKING NEWS

Cleeve found guilty of deceptive and misleading conduct

in Australia.

Yesterday 10th July 2007 The Supreme Court in Melbourne Australia found Stephen Cleeve ( ex Napier Spirit Company Director ) and European Land Sales Partnership engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive in contravention of Section 9 of the Fair Trading Act 1999.

European Land Sales Partnership had been selling plots of English land to the Australians on the basis that planning permission would be obtained in the near future when in fact none of the sites had the remotest possibility of obtaining planning permission in the near future or possibly ever.

Cleeve was forced to refund a couple of his Australian investors and the court ordered that all Australian investors who had purchased land from Cleeve be provided with a copy of the Court Order. He was ordered to pay $10,000 dollars in costs and restrained from selling or offering for sale in Australia land unless he implemented a fair trading compliance training programme.

Australian investors will now be able to take legal action to recoup their 'investment'. Pity the many English investors who are left with nigh on worthless scraps of land and don't have the benefit of Australian Consumer Protection legislation. It's high time Trading Standards the OFT the DTI and the Serious Fraud Office took concerted action to curtail the land banking scam in this country.