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.
Farce: Ben Revell ran three firms, and all have collapsed
B.R. writes: We are victims of Winebuyers.
I met Ben Revell at a wine fair and fell for his scheme. My company sent a consignment of wine. We know Winebuyers sold some of our wine, but it has not paid us.
Numerous calls and emails went unanswered, and Winebuyers even deducted charges from our credit card for months despite the cancellation of our contract.
Tony Hetherington replies: Most phoenix companies rise from the ashes just once, but there seems to be almost no limit to the number of times wine dealer Ben Revell can write off a company, start again, and then leave fresh wreckage behind him.
I warned last September: ‘Beware of the Zombie’. At the time, Revell was running the same business for the third time under different company names – and now it has collapsed too.
When he first set out as an online wine trader, Revell formed Winebuyers Ltd. He charged wine producers and merchants to appear on his winebuyers.com website, and he promoted sales of their wine to the public.
Shoppers would pay Revell’s company, and most received their wine, but increasingly the producers and merchants complained they were left unpaid.
Winebuyers Ltd went into liquidation in 2021 with debts of around £1.5 million. Just as it failed, a new company was registered, called Winebuyers Group Ltd. It bought some of the failed company’s assets, including its customer records and website.
To much of the outside world, nothing had gone wrong as the website was still there. On paper, the new company had a new boss, Kyle Fordham, but behind the scenes the strings were pulled by Revell who described himself as Chief Executive.
Once Winebuyers Group was up and running, Fordham quit and has not been heard of since in the wine trade. Revell officially took over as director in March last year, and in June, I reported there were unpaid court judgments, that it had failed to file accounts legally due, and that consumer websites were packed with complaints.
By July, the company had fallen into administration, blaming Covid, Brexit, the cost of living, a shortage of glass due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, of course, climate change. What happened next was farcical.
The Administrators of the collapsed Winebuyers Group sold some of its assets, including its customer database and website, to a new company called Elysian Ventures Ltd, which offered £100,000. Elysian was set up by Revell, who then signed it over to an odd offshore company called Ophidian Corp, based in the Seychelles, where its ownership is concealed.
Again, to outsiders looking at the Winebuyers website, it was business as usual – until a few weeks ago, that is. Last month, Revell quit as director and the website stopped working. Elysian Ventures has now gone into Receivership. This latest collapse is because Elysian handed over only half of the £100,000 it was supposed to pay to the Administrators of Winebuyers Group.
The Administrators – from the major insolvency firm Begbies Traynor – have issued a scathing report, saying that when Elysian Ventures failed to pay up, they demanded the return of the Winebuyers website and everything else covered by the purchase agreement. Elysian replied that it was unable to access the IT system operating its own website. Begbies Traynor then hired outside IT experts, but say Elysian provided ‘just enough information to give the appearance of cooperation without enabling us to move matters forward’.
A report on the conduct of Winebuyers Group and its directors has been submitted to the Department for Business. Begbies Traynor adds cryptically it is in touch with the Department ‘to provide such further information as they may require to support their own continued investigations’.
The bottom line to all this is that it shows how just one person can control three successive companies, all of which collapse with big debts, while at the same time he uses just one business name: Winebuyers. However you look at it, our company oversight system just doesn’t work.
Ben Revell could not be contacted for comment. If he gets in touch, I shall be glad to report it.
Revenue needs real people!
Ms S.C. writes: I am treasurer of a small cat rescue charity.
We are registered for VAT and submit returns to HM Revenue & Customs.
Since our latest refund claim was submitted we have not received the near-£5,000 which HMRC itself said was owed to us.
Tony Hetherington replies: The biggest problem anyone faces with the taxman nowadays is getting through to someone who will actually listen to your question, let alone provide an answer.
Out of pocket: The biggest problem anyone faces with the taxman nowadays is getting through to someone who will actually listen to your question, let alone provide an answer
Revenue bosses behave as if the answer to every question is displayed on their website, which is clearly untrue. You tried many times to phone the Revenue. You were lucky to get through, but when you did, you were simply asked automatic questions and then sent an online link to a web page which showed your refund had not been paid – which was exactly why you were calling.
You emailed several times and received responses saying a reply would be sent within 15 days. Of course, it wasn’t. You posted hard copy letters. They were never acknowledged.
I asked officials at the Revenue head office to look into this. They found that your charity changed its bank details, and informed the Revenue, at about the same time as the refund was due.
The refund went to your old account and bounced back to the taxman, and that is where it stayed. Nobody forwarded it to your new account. The Revenue has apologised.
Your refund of £4,799 has now been sent to your new account, along with £36 interest because of the delay. Members of the HMRC Board please note that no website advice or recorded message could ever have resolved this problem. Please provide trained human beings who can handle real problems.
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.
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