Blackmore Bond receivers pick over scraps for investors

A development site in South Liverpool, linked to the collapsed Manchester-based minibond fund that left investors owed more than £40m, has been sold for £1.2m as receivers work through the web of affiliated special purpose vehicles to recover money.

An unnamed private buyer acquired the cleared site off Woolton Road in Childwall, where Blackmore once proposed 25 apartments in a five-storey block. The 600-year-old stone cottage, Maldon Lodge, that occupied the site previously was the home of TV writer Carla Lane, creator of Bread and Butterflies, in her later years before she died in 2016. The plans were approved in February 2017 despite objections from campaign groups and the cottage was demolished, but Blackmore’s development did not materialise.

Receiver Belleveue Mortlakes and agent Eddisons acted for Blackmore SPV 13, the vehicle for the Maldon Lodge development, recovering money for one of the lenders to the SPV. Lenders with charges against the property included KSEYE Capital, West One Loans, and Amicus Finance.

More than a dozen other Blackmore SPVs within the Blackmore Bond portfolio are at various stages of administration, receivership or liquidation. There are sites in Birmingham, Stevenage, Ashford and Devon.

In August, Wythenshawe-based peer-to-peer lender Assetz Capital called for receiver Duff & Phelps to be appointed over freehold land at St Augustine’s Chapel in Cheadle Heath, Stockport.

Planning consent was granted in April 2016 for nine two-bed apartments totalling 9,000 sq ft. Work started but the development stalled before completion.

Agent MBRE is now asking £1.2m for the partly complete development.

Blackmore Bond St Augustines Chapel

Agent brochure for the stalled St Augustine’s Chapel development

Blackmore was controlled by Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh. Blackmore raised millions of pounds from public investors between 2016 and 2018, investing the funds in 11 property developments. The business collapsed in April and administrator Duff & Phelps said it expects to recoup only £5m from the property sales.

Minibonds are a controversial area of the retail investment market as they are not regulated, exposing investors to greater risk of not getting their money back if the investment fund fails.

Nunn now advertises himself as a LinkedIn sales guru, claiming to do half an hour’s work each morning and then automating his sales tactics on the professional network website throughout the rest of the day while he relaxes with his children or plays golf.

Phillip Nunn Email Blackmore Bonds

Extract from one of Phillip Nunn’s promotional emails

Your Comments

Read our comments policy

Glad they are being called out. More of this please PNW.

By Anonymous

A part completed church in Cheadle heath for £1.2 million am I reading correctly.
The GDV of the completed site must only be in that sort of region minus 20% developers profit works to finish, professional costs marketing fees etc. Are the works done to date of the right quality the site is worth no more than 500k best of luck trying to get 1.2 million !!!

By Steven C

We see this time and time again, take the money off people, and then off they swan with the proceeds before declaring all the projects “mothballed” whilst they enjoy a life of luxury somewhere abroad.

By Liverpool

Well done PNW! This guy is a quintessential trickster. There’s a lot of people wanting answers…

By Anonymous

This guy became quite prolific in the bitcoin malarky on LinkedIn… There needs to be regulations in place to stop this but still, things that seem too good to be true, are generally just that..!

By Cheshire boy

Nice bit of investigative work, I wondered if this guy would ever get called out, tut tut, gives developers a bad name. Well done Place North West

By Clare Goole

So, where did all the money go?

LL

By Liver lad

lol

By Anonymous

Related Articles

Sign up to receive the Place Daily Briefing

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and sign up to receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

"*" indicates required fields

Your Job Field*
Other regional Publications - select below