THREE Whitefield-based property companies, which offered investors the chance to purchase, refurbish and let properties, have been wound up for misleading clients following a DTI investigation.

Europa Property Company Ltd, trading as Lloyd Ryan Properties, offered to help clients build up a property portfolio by finding houses in Lancashire and Yorkshire for investors to buy. They then arranged for them to be renovated by Europa Buildings Northern Ltd, another company in the same group.

They would then arrange to find tenants, allowing the investors to buy further properties and build up a property portfolio. They claimed that their clients could own up to 30 houses within two years.

Investors were led to believe that more than 50 estate agents were referring properties to the scheme for investment.

But DTI investigations showed that the majority of referrals came from just one company, Peachey Properties Ltd, another company in the same group. Properties were often sold at prices far above their market value and often with a mark up of up to 100 per cent.

In reality, although the three companies were made out to be separate entities, they were simply one business under the common control of an undischarged bankrupt.

Peachey Properties Ltd was registered at Europa House in Barcroft Street, Bury, while Europa Property Company Ltd and Europa Buildings Northern Ltd were registered in Stockport and Manchester respectively. However, all three companies traded from York Street, Whitefield.

The records for all three businesses were incomplete but it was clear that, despite taking around £700,000 from investors in ten months of trading, many of the refurbishments had not taken place and investigators found no evidence that any of the properties had been let as promised.