The Serious Fraud Office has raided two sites and made three arrests as part of a new investigation into an alleged £76m fraud around investments into luxury care homes.
The raids in St Leonard’s, in Dorset, and Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, form part of an investigation into a UK property developer called the Carlauren Group, which collapsed into administration in November 2019.
Its demise forced some elderly residents to vacate their homes and left more than 600 private investors out of pocket, the agency said on Tuesday.
Over four years, the Carlauren Group purchased 23 properties across the UK, mostly former hotels including the historic Windlestone Hall in Durham, offering an annual 10% return on investment in its renovation of these properties into high-end care homes.
The SFO added that only nine of the properties were ever operational and some continued to be run as hotels, instead of homes. The property group also purchased a number of high-end motor vehicles “purportedly for the company” including two Lamborghinis, a McLaren 570GT, a private jet and two yachts – details of which had previously emerged almost five years ago in the high court, when an application was made to take the company into administration.
The moves by the SFO suggests that the agency is becoming increasingly interested in the sale of care home investments, as Carlauren is the second case relating to the business model opened by the agency.
Three years ago the fraud agency launched an investigation into the business affairs of care home entrepreneur Gavin Woodhouse, which remains ongoing.
Woodhouse’s empire had collapsed into administration during 2019 after a series of reports into its finances by the Guardian and ITV News.
In the Carlauren case, the SFO said that more than 600 people and companies invested in the scheme via purchase of rooms, that were then to be rented out to elderly residents, in facilities that boasted swimming pools, room service and other luxury amenities. The investments in the rooms were advertised widely and sold with a guaranteed annual payout and the opportunity to resell the asset with up to a 25% profit after 10 years.
Nick Ephgrave, director of the SFO, said: “This company’s abrupt collapse has created turmoil and enormous anxiety for many, with elderly people forced to vacate their homes and investors left with nothing.
“Today’s arrests are a major development in our investigation and a step towards getting the answers so many people need.”
Efforts by the Guardian to contact Carlauren’s founder were unsuccessful.
