Vol 18 (2021) - Issue 4

Article preview

Re MBI Hawthorn Care Ltd, Duffy v Woodhouse [2019] EWHC 2365 (Ch)

Gavin Woodhouse ran an investment scheme under which individual provided funds to develop hotels or care homes in return for a 125-year lease of one of the rooms in the development, the right to sell the lease back to the developer for 125% of the purchase price and, it was anticipated, a high rate of return on the investment. The investment group comprised of a number of companies, including several of SPVs which were to hold property or operate individual hotels and care homes. The scheme went wrong, with investments being pooled rather than, as advertised assigned to individual SPVs, and only around a third of the funds invested could be accounted for in the group.