Tarquin Traders on BBC South NOW

jfm said:
You might be surprised. If he defrauded you about the sales price he is facing criminal fraud and 2 years being careful not to drop the soap in the showers at one of Her Majesty's hip hotels. So if you actually discover a price difference, email him and ask him if he prefers (a) send you the money out of his personal resources or (b) you send the file to the police. He might well chose (a), and he said in the TV program that he intended to refund the lady who was short changed by £10k on her Trader sale in this way, possibly for the same basic reason.
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I don't think it came out too clearly in the TV report that Chappel (I won't do him the honour of calling him "Mr.") shipped a sold brokerage boat abroad and continued to charge £800 a month for berthing and services at Emsworth!!!!
 
The trouble with chaps like this is they have no conscious / shame in regard to any of their business dealings. 'Slippery as a bucket of eels' might be an apt description, I believe this is not the first time that this gentleman has pulled such a stroke (i.e. gone into liquidation), I am certain someone will correct me if this information is wrong. Unless criminal activity can be proved, he is likely to 'face off' any claim against him. I did not see the programme referred to, are trading standards or the police investigating?. Even if there is evidence the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) have to be persuaded to bring a case. I wish all creditors the best of luck in getting their money back, but they may find this to be a tortuous process.
 
steve_clayton said:
I don't think it came out too clearly in the TV report that Chappel (I won't do him the honour of calling him "Mr.") shipped a sold brokerage boat abroad and continued to charge £800 a month for berthing and services at Emsworth!!!!
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Steve, the outlook from his house is remarkably familiar - does anyone know where he lives - Midhurst area???

He deserves to have those anoying little accidents happening from time to time.....
 
Chris_Robb said:
Steve, the outlook from his house is remarkably familiar - does anyone know where he lives - Midhurst area???

He deserves to have those anoying little accidents happening from time to time.....
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No need to speculate. His address is on the public record at Co House. I've traded emails at length (ages ago) with Gludy on the colourful contents of his Companies House file

It seems to me there can't be anything wrong in writing his address on here, as it is on the public file at Co House (as are the addresses of lots of posters on here, incl mine) so if there is demand for it I'll post it
 
Got to be honest and say I knew very little about Trader yachts, always thought they looked nice and sea worthy, saw a thread on here a while back stating they had gone bust and to be honest felt for the guy. I am a owner/director of a small business and I know how bloody hard it has been.....

.... but then I watched with horror the program on BBC iplayer. Words cannot convey the disgust I hold for the crook Tony Chappell, and those like him. I feel so much for the innocence parties (individuals and sub-contractors) who have lost money because of him. It amazes me these type of businessmen who completely wipe-out owing millions then just start up weeks later, time and time again!! ...and apparently he likes his planes....well don't we all, but I wouldn't buy one until I could pay for it with my own money, not someone else's! :eek:
 
Gludy said:
He also continued to charge the seller £800 per month for keeping the boat in Emsworth when it was in Denmark!!! Then he swindled the chap in Denmark as well!!!
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Paul, congratulations on getting Inside Out to broadcast this report. I knew Chappell was a crook but I didn't realise he'd ripped off so many people over the years. Can you clear up a few things I don't understand about the report.
The lady who sold Cats Whisker said she was defrauded of £58k, yet it seems Chappell witheld £10k from the purchase price. How was the rest lost? Then there was the Danish guy who lost his Trader because documents were not sent. What happened there? Lastly, the Scots farmer who lost £116k on a new boat purchase. In his statement, Chappell said he offered to build him another boat. Was that new boat at full price or less the deposit already paid?
Overall I found the prog shocking. If ever there was an example of why the process of buying and selling a boat needs reform, this is it
 
jfm said:
No need to speculate. His address is on the public record at Co House. I've traded emails at length (ages ago) with Gludy on the colourful contents of his Companies House file

It seems to me there can't be anything wrong in writing his address on here, as it is on the public file at Co House (as are the addresses of lots of posters on here, incl mine) so if there is demand for it I'll post it
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As is mine, So you might as well publish!
 
As a non-involved boater I've been horrified as to the contempt Chapell has shown his clients.

Just a thought though....

Aren't there enough people to share the costs of a private prosecution? I believe it doesn't necessarily have to be done through the police & CPS. If you could get 2 or more example frauds even a magistrates' court can sentence up to 6 months on each one and then apply them consecutively. Plus there's the interesting matter that if he pleads not guilty but is found guilty he would lose any reduction for an early guilty plea (usually 1/3 reduction) so if he is guilty, there is usually strong advice from his solicitor to avoid risking this remission. Generally any frauds of less than £35k will be dealt with by magistrates unless the defendant elects to be tried by a jury. My guess is that this case would not attract much jury sympathy if "intent to defraud" could be proven, i.e. when he took deposit from the Scottish farmer he knew the company was already insolvent, I'm sure the forensic accountant in the programme could help there.
 
Adrianwool said:
I wonder how he stands with HMRC?, if they have been 'done' out of their share they are likely to take a dim view of it and pursue Mr Chappell.
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In my experience of serial company busters like Chappell, they are very careful to square HMRC and their banks because they know they can't afford to fall foul of them for when they start up again. In any case, HMRC and the banks are usually preferred creditors in any administration. It is always trade creditors and customers ie the little guys who lose out when companies go bust. People like Chappell know that they can always find another mug to supply goods and services
 
Deleted User said:
In my experience of serial company busters like Chappell, they are very careful to square HMRC and their banks because they know they can't afford to fall foul of them for when they start up again. In any case, HMRC and the banks are usually preferred creditors in any administration. It is always trade creditors and customers ie the little guys who lose out when companies go bust. People like Chappell know that they can always find another mug to supply goods and services
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On reflection, this is probably true, I had a client many years ago now who 'done' me for about 50k worth of services, but as you say he was very careful to keep his bank onside, (& the revenue).

Its just worrying when people start talking about bringing private 'class actions' against fraudsters like this chap. As you are probably aware getting convictions in cases like this is notoriously difficult, and one does not like to see good people adding (considerable) legal costs to their existing losses, thus compounding the amount of money going down the drain
 
Deleted User said:
In my experience of serial company busters like Chappell, they are very careful to square HMRC and their banks because they know they can't afford to fall foul of them for when they start up again. In any case, HMRC and the banks are usually preferred creditors in any administration. It is always trade creditors and customers ie the little guys who lose out when companies go bust. People like Chappell know that they can always find another mug to supply goods and services
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True, but on the other hand, fraud and tax evasion go hand in hand. For instance, if he retained £10k personally on the sale of the Trader in the programme, even if it couldn't be proved as fraud, he should presumably have paid income tax on it. A letter from a concerned client could trigger a tax inspection, which could be quite uncomfortable for him. That's how they got Al Capone after all! :-)
 
Adrianwool said:
On reflection, this is probably true, I had a client many years ago now who 'done' me for about 50k worth of services, but as you say he was very careful to keep his bank onside, (& the revenue).

Its just worrying when people start talking about bringing private 'class actions' against fraudsters like this chap. As you are probably aware getting convictions in cases like this is notoriously difficult, and one does not like to see good people adding (considerable) legal costs to their existing losses, thus compounding the amount of money going down the drain
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I don't want to open up the extended discussion we had a few weeks ago about taking legal action against brokers but I agree with you. Once you start involving lawyors, everybody loses and any victory is likely to be entirely phrryic. People like Chappell take great care to put all their assets in the names of non co directors. The problem is the way the system allows large sums of money to pass through brokers/dealers' hands
 
Nick_H said:
True, but on the other hand, fraud and tax evasion go hand in hand. For instance, if he retained £10k personally on the sale of the Trader in the programme, even if it couldn't be proved as fraud, he should presumably have paid income tax on it. A letter from a concerned client could trigger a tax inspection, which could be quite uncomfortable for him. That's how they got Al Capone after all! :-)
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I don't think that the inference is that he retained the £10k personally. It seems to me that the £10k was an extra slice off the top for his company which I guess was in addition to any commission his company deducted. Interesting scam. I guess he produced one set of sale documents for the seller with £290k on it and another set for the buyer with £300k on it. With the buyer being in Denmark and the seller in the UK, I assume he thought the two would never meet. I wonder how many other times he used this scam or indeed whether other brokers use it?
 
Deleted User said:
Interesting scam. I guess he produced one set of sale documents for the seller with £290k on it and another set for the buyer with £300k on it.
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Our sale agreements are signed by both parties who literally exchange documents so everyone (including us) has a copy which matches the others.

Strange that this is not the norm?!
 
As the program says the sums of money they are talking about should not pass through brokers hands and should be handled via solicitors in the same way you would purchase a house for instance.

When purchasing my boat although not a large amount of money by comparison I was guilty of sending the money to a "client account" although i did meet the owner at the boat for the sea trial etc.

If he was swindling the revenue and customs then be sure they would have him over a barrel in no time at all.
 
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