Times of Tunbridge Wells 20th March 2019

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Wednesday March 20 | 2019

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OF TUNBRIDGE WELLS

Fraud squad arrests highlight fears over £230m investments

MP REACTS TO CALLS TO RESIGN

Company founded by former Tory Party chair investigated by Richard Williams FOUR people have been arrested following the collapse of a Tunbridge Wellsbased investment company that was founded by the former chairman of the local Conservative Party, Simon Hume-Kendall. Those arrested have not been named and have been released pending further inquiries. The arrests have put at risk more than £230million in investments made to the company, London Capital & Finance. There is no suggestion that Mr Hume-Kendall is personally involved in any wrong doing. The 65-year-old, who resigned from the company in 2013, is a well known local businessman. He is currently understood to be living near the town centre and is listed as being a director of eight companies. The Serious Fraud Office [SFO] said on Monday it had arrested four people who were associated with London Capital & Finance. It is working on an investigation with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), National Crime Agency, City of London Police, Kent Police, Sussex Police and the

South East Regional Organised Crime Unit [SEROCU]. The Times reported in January how the FCA had frozen the assets of the investment company following com-

cent annual interest on their ISAs, much higher than any competitive products. The FCA began investigating following concerns that the firm’s 14,000 clients may not have fully understood the nature of the investment they were making. Administrators Smith & Williamson stepped in last month raising fears that £236 million in investments made to the company by the firm’s clients could be lost.

Borrowed

FOUNDER: Simon Hume-Kendall

There is no suggestion that Mr Hume-Kendall is personally involved in any wrong doing plaints on how the firm was marketing its products. The LCF scheme collapsed in December after the FCA told it to withdraw its marketing material which it said was ‘misleading, not fair and unclear’. The company had been promising clients eight per

These fears have now been heightened following the criminal investigation. The SFO said it made the arrests earlier this month, on March 4, in the Kent and Sussex areas. It has also since emerged that the Eridge Park-based London Capital & Finance was a lender to companies linked to the founder and director Simon Hume-Kendall, including Independent Oil & Gas, Atlantic Petroleum and London Oil & Gas [LOG], which has also collapsed. London Oil & Gas, an oil company that is believed to have borrowed tens of millions of pounds from London Capital

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Business Secretary Greg Clark arriving in Downing Street yesterday [Tuesday] for a cabinet meeting. The MP for Tunbridge Wells has faced calls to resign from his post as a Government minister, after he defied a Conservative Party ‘three-line whip’ last week and abstained from a crunch Brexit vote. Full story Page 2.


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