TATOC CONSUMER “HELPLINE”
Co Reg 08393380
Registered Office Address: Timberly South Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AD.
How much Cash has the company got? Cash in Bank £0
What’s its net worth of TATOC Help Line Net Worth £0
What is its Total Current Liabilities Owes to Others £0
What is the value of its Current Assets It Owns £0
No money, no assets, no liabilities and no retained value. This Company does exist in a trading sense. It cannot possible have employees or purchases, sales etc.
As a claimed TATOC Consumer Helpline (“Helpline”) would you not think it has telephone bills, people answering the phones, and telephone system shown as an asset?
Not according to their presently filed records.
“Helpline” has 3 named Directors
Mr. Geoffrey Neil Chapman Director No.1
Mr Geoffrey Neil Chapman 1st of 3 was appointed on the 07-02-2013
He is registered at Court Lane House 1 Court Lane Wolstanton, Newcastle Staffordshire United Kingdom ST5 8DD
He is also a past Director and connected to AROMA, Flexi Holiday Club Limited 02928076 Registered Address: C/o Morley & Scott Lynton House, 7 – 12 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9LT
This Company has no money in the account and is again valued at £0.00 after 13 years of existence.
Flexi Clubs Present long time director is Mr. Stuart Lamont Chapman (nicknamed the Bull Frog). Mr Chapman represents and promotes the fact that he is affiliated with AROMA Flexi Club in TATOC and in its board of Directors.
Chapman is a Director of Timeshare Association (Timeshare Owners and Committees) Ltd (TATOC) which is sponsored by the timeshare industry.
The Company Sectary of “Helpline”
The Company sectary of “ Helpline” is named as Claremont Company Secretarial Limited some records reflect that it was appointed on the 07-02-2014 and identifies it as having company registration numbers 917564914. This registration is wrongly inputted on the Company House files, however, we located the correct company being called Claremont (Company Secretarial) Limited .
Claremont Company Secretarial Limited holds only this appointment and has been appointed for 2 years and 6 months The combined cash at bank value for all businesses where holds a current appointment equals £0, with a combined total current assets value of £0 and total current liabilities of £0.
This company has a connected Director and listed below as Mr. Stuart James Carrington who is TATOC’s accountant.
Mr John Bailey Hughes Director No.2
Mr John Bailey Hughes the 2nd out of 3 appointed Directors was appointed to the board of “Helpline” on the 01-12-2014 and still remains. For fullness he was also Director of Shakespeare Solicitors LLP (TATOC Solicitors), however, has resigned his role at Shakespeare.
John Bailey Hughes Directors Reference is 905160507 his registered address is 37 Temple Street, Temple Street, Birmingham, England, B2 5DJ.
He is also a Director of the following companies which appear to be a collection of holiday resorts and linked to timeshare:
CLUB OLYMPUS (UNIT SIX) LIMITED, CLUB OLYMPUS (UNIT FOUR) LIMITED, CLUB OLYMPUS (UNIT THREE) LIMITED, CLUB OLYMPUS (UNIT FIVE) LIMITED, CLUB OLYMPUS (UNIT TWO) LIMITED, CLUB OLYMPUS (UNIT ONE) LIMITED, REGENCY VILLAS TITLE LIMITED, NEEJAM LLP, HOLIDAY OWNERS’ SERVICES LIMITED, INDUSTRIAL LETTINGS LIMITED, CLUB OLYMPUS TRUSTEES LIMITED, AURORA LAND AND DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED, LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT LIMITED, LAGOON PROPERTIES LIMITED, OCEANIA PROPERTIES LIMITED, LAGOON DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED, ARROWWOOD LIMITED, ELMO LAS MIMOSAS, ASHLONE LIMITED, WESTRING LIMITED, HARTSHILL INVESTMENTS LIMITED, MERRIDALE INVESTMENTS LIMITED, SILVERSEA INVESTMENTS LIMITED, LINDEN LAS MIMOSAS, DELTAFIELD LIMITED, FERINA LIMITED, LAS MIMOSAS TITLE ONE Company, ASMID LIMITED BALAS LIMITED, BRUMCAN ALACRITY LA QUINTA Company, MARINEVIEW LAS MIMOSAS Company, ABRADE LIMITED, BRUMCAN RECYCLING LIMITED, BEACHVIEW LAS MIMOSAS Company, ARDENT LIMITED AMADIS LIMITED, BRUNICO LA QUINTA, BRUMCAN RECYCLING LIMITED, AVENGER LA QUINTA, NEEDHAM & JAMES SECRETARIAL SERVICES LIMITED, GRANANE LIMITED, VACATION OWNERS INDEPENDENT COALITION EUROPE, BERRYMAN SHACKLOCK LIMITED, WOOD GLAISTER LIMITED, TATOC CONSUMER HELPLINE, TARPEIN TWO LIMITED, BIRMINGHAM LAW SOCIETY (THE), THE ASSOCIATION OF PROPERTY AND FIXED CHARGE RECEIVERS, MIJAS COSTA DEVELOPMENT LIMITED, LA QUINTA TITLE COMPANY LIMITED, LAS MIMOSAS TITLE COMPANY LIMITED, LAS MIMOSAS TITLE COMPANY LIMITED, LA QUINTA TITLE COMPANY LIMITED, SHAKESPEARE MARTINEAU LLP
Mr Stuart James Carrington Director No.3
Mr Stuart James Carrington the 3rd out of 3 Directors was appointed on to the “Helpline board” on the 01-12-2014. His Other Directorships are as follows:
THOMAS WESTCOTT BUSINESS RECOVERY LLP, THOMAS WESTCOTT SECRETARIAL LIMITED, THOMAS WESTCOTT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, CLAREMONT (COMPANY SECRETARIAL) LIMITED
Thomas Westcott is the appointed accountants of TATOC and is instructed by TATOC and Harry Taylor in many matters including auditing and accountancy.
Helpline board is controlled by TATOC its Accountant and its Solicitors who all benefit from TATOC and the timeshare industry.
After a heated meeting at the last Lakeview AGM meeting Harry Taylor (the chairman of the club) explained after a dispute erupted about the accounts that the questioner should address the question to the auditor direct (Westcott). The questioner therefore did just that and contained below is his letter.
9 June 2015
Mr Stuart Carrington FCA
Thomas Westcott Chartered Accountants
Timberly
South Street
Axminster
Devon
EX13 5AD
Dear Mr Carrington
LAKEVIEW COUNTRY CLUB TIMESHARE (“THE CLUB”)
“I attended the Annual General Meeting of the club on the instruction of a holder of a timeshare certificate. At the meeting questions were raised about the accounts audited by your firm, which the committee were unable to answer and members were asked to contact you for clarification. In this regard I raise the following matters for your consideration and I would appreciate your substantive response within 14 days. For your convenience, you may respond by e-mail as above or telephone me as detailed below..
1. Conflict and Independence
Your audit report is addressed to the club members on whose behalf you undertook the audit. The club is managed by a committee under the chairmanship of Mr Harry Taylor. Auditors should have a level of independence from the committee members administering the club finances and assets. The auditors have a responsibility to the members over and above the committee. It is noted from your website that you have a close continuing professional relationship with TATOC, a company limited by guarantee, controlled by Mr Taylor. There also appear to be other connections.
During the meeting Mr Taylor was asked why his own accountants were employed as auditors of the club and whether he believed his other relationships should be disclosed as a potential conflict. Mr. Taylor denied conflict or the need to disclose the association prior to your appointment stating that you were appointed as auditors solely because you had acted for the prior owner, Mr. Vernon.
Another club member, who was a chartered accountant, asked how you had managed to perform a full audit service and prepare the accounts for a fee of £1,790.an increase of only £245 over the previous year where there was no audit. The members were informed you carried out the work for this fee as a favour.
It is understood there is a live police investigation into the conduct of Mr Taylor in association Aroma Thyme Limited and Associates led by Mr Lamont (reference NFRC150401024188). This complaint relates to a situation which was live at the date when you were working on your audit. The dispute concerns dealings with members of the club by Aroma through the Committee. Aroma is an associate of Continental Trust Limited with offices at the same addresses in London and seems to have close associations with Mr Taylor.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could confirm:-
i. You have no conflict of interest which should be reported to members and will you continue to act as auditors.
ii. Details of the scope of work carried out in preparing the accounts and issuing the audit statement laid before the members at the Annual General Meeting;
iii Did you act for the previous Landlord Mr Vernon or any associate, how long for and in what capacity .
iii. Were you made aware of the complaint and the dealings between the committee and Aroma and did you consider the independence and impartiality of Continental as the trustees holding and administrating the members interests in the time share property and certificates. If not previously aware will you now investigate further and report to the members.
iv How do you justify your charges other than by confirming, minimal work was undertaken and are you prepared to allow inspection of your audit files by a member of the club who is also a member of your institute.
v Would you be prepared to review your work and issue a new report.
2. Disputes and Verification
There are long standing disputes between the club and the two previous landlords dating back many years. The disputes continue from the time of Mr Vernon, with whom it appears you had a professional relationship and should therefore have been aware of the position. The disputes relate to unpaid charges due to both the former landlord and the current landlord who has acquired the claims of Mr Vernon; time share weeks that are claimed to have reverted to the landlord: where the committee claims to have issued time share certificates to the current landlord to discharge costs outstanding and others.
I contacted the landlord who advised me that they never received any communications from you during the process of preparing the audited accounts. They allege you never attempted to obtain verification on charges raised whether paid or outstanding. At no time have you question with them the validity of their charges or otherwise.
Whilst you are not be expected to make determinations on disputes, as auditor is was your duty to confirm the amounts paid were properly due and to confirm the balance outstanding.. Without this procedure the accounts produced and the audit certificate are vacuous. The same is true of debts due to the company. If there were doubts or disputes they need to be disclosed and you must have been required to investigate the existence of such before reporting. (All for £245). This procedure is the very reason the club employs an independent auditor rather than rely on accounts produced by the committee. In regard to the work you carried out in issuing the audit certificate can you please advise:-
i. What verifications you carried out to confirm the creditor and debtor figure in the accounts was correct;
ii. What information was made available to you by the committee in regard to disputes which are in solicitor’s hands and should by now have passed into arbitration under the terms of the leases dispute resolution clause.
iii Did you ever suggest it was necessary for notes of any kind to be attached to the accounts laid before the members or for your audit report to be qualified.
3. Correct Levy of Charges to Members
It is noted from your web site that you consider your firm to be experts in the Time Share Industry. It is therefore expected that you have expert knowledge to employ on behalf of your clients, which increase your duty of care and expectation as to the extent of the quality of the enquiries you would make.
You are hopefully aware that the club could have active members, each enjoying one week of one of the timeshare properties of about 1200. It is understood that the actual number remaining, who have not surrendered their certificate is 500/600 with circa 650 vesting with the committee for the benefit of the members. This is an asset which has not been reported on and appears to have been ignored in the accounts you audited and not even referred to in any note to those accounts.
I was very surprised that the accounts laid before the members did not contain a detailed calculation of how the management charge was calculated and also the budgets for the following year which would be the basis of levying the next charge. I fully understand that this may not have been within your instructions as auditors but it is a crucial part of any meaningful and objective report to members.
As auditor it was your duty to certify the correct costs have been charged and recovered. If there was an over or under charge it was your duty to investigate this and report. As regards the amount charged firstly as no enquiry was made by you it seems you never satisfied yourself on the costs recovered. The committee holds a copy of Counsel’s Opinion which confirms the law relating to the division of costs between time share certificate holders. As experts in time share I trust you are aware of how rechargeable costs should be recharged where there is no specific provisions in the club constitution. The constitution does not allow the committee to recover all the costs in the way it has done so for many years. This breach should have been reported on by you and fully understood by you as a result of your long exposure to Lakeview, your specialist knowledge and the investigations and enquiries you were bound to carry out. The rechargeable costs payable by members should have been the costs properly incurred divided by the number of active, being 500/600 not 1200. This creates a debt to the members which is uncalculated or reserved for, undisclosed and almost certainly makes the club insolvent.
In this regard can you please advise:-
i. What enquiries you made to Continental Trustees Limited as regard to the number of timeshare certificates still held by club members and the number that vest in the control of the committee. Did you get Continental to confirm the position in writing?
ii. How the interests of the club in certificates which have been surrendered are valued and disclosed in the accounts;
iii. Your investigations as to whether these certificates vest with the committee for the benefit of the club or whether there are any third party rights to these certificates such as the landlord as he claims..
iv. During the course of your audit it is believed you must have reviewed the constitution of the club. In this regard can advise the date of the constitution which you have reviewed.
v. Have you reviewed the leases in considering the validity and accuracy accounts you audited
.vi What steps did you take to determine the charges made were correct.;
vii .Having now been made aware of the situation do you believe the past years accounts should be revisited and restated.
I apologise for the length of this letter and I am very aware of the waste of professional time and costs in dealing with matters of this kind. Regretfully in the case of the Lakeview Club some intervention is necessary and your responsibility is very formidable despite your overly modest charges. Failure to deal with these matters now will not increase any culpability for matters overlooked in t6he past accounts which you signed undated.
I believe you should be given every chance to deal with the matters that concern me. If these matters are not addressed there will be serious and potentially costly results for the members, the committee, the auditors and the creditors. My concerns are now increased because the committee members have decided to give all members of the club, who do not wish to continue to pay fees, the opportunity of surrendering their timeshare certificates to the committee. It is understood that large numbers of the members wish to do this. The consequence of this surrender will be a serious reduction in the number of active timeshare members to share the costs under the present cost evaluation and re-charging policies followed by the committee. This will result in even heavier charges for those continuing and resulting in even further surrenders.
The committee say this offer was made to placate members. It is possible, with some situation precedents, that there is some other undisclosed agenda such as asset stripping, which would be assisted by an increase in the size of the pool of certificates controlled by the members. Mr Taylor vigorously denied any such intention at the AGM and was believed by the meeting. I am told a further offer has since been made by an outside party to purchase time share weeks for up to £1000. This suggests to me there is some value attributable to empty weeks, being an undisclosed asset of the club. It further seems the members are being prejudiced by inadequate reporting including financial reporting.
The auditors are in the position to take stock of the current position by carrying out an independent evaluation and review of the club, free of any control by the committee or any other party other than the members and report to the members. You could do this if you have no conflict and if you have one, another medium sized firm could be engaged for the purpose. Such a review would benefit the members. You would be entitle to be properly remunerated for carrying out any such review based on instructions agreed by the member in a general meeting convened for the purpose.
If you feel my enquiries are difficult for you to provide an immediate and substantive reply, I would be very pleased to discuss the position with you as to a way forward. I look forward to hearing from you and can be contacted at any time by email or my mobile 07507833712.
Yours sincerely
Paul A Sayers
Senior Partner
Despite assurance that the Westcott accountants would capitulate with consumers questions, to date they have not done so or addressed the conflict issues. The TCA has been informed that the matter is now with solicitors.
Equally Harry Taylor is arranging a meeting with the Lakeview County Club Ltd resorts to do a deal with them over the lease problems and the alleged £2,000,000 debt the timeshare resorts owes to them. We will see how those matter developed, only time will tell.
Returning to the “Helpline”
Thomas Westcott (Mr Stuart Carrington FCA) explains in their website the following:
“At Thomas Westcott, we are internationally recognised within the timeshare industry for our expertise and integrity, as well as the outstanding service we provide to the sector”.
They claim “We pride ourselves on only working with the best the industry has to offer”.
We operate two specialist audit teams under the banner of timeshare services – one specialising in UK requirements and the second dealing with overseas work (particularly in the Canary Islands and Mainland Spain)”.
“Although coming under the banner heading of “audit services” this work also includes less formal engagements where the owners have specific concerns and we are tasked with reporting on those key areas.” All such work is carried out in a professional manner to the high standards that should always be expected from Chartered Accountants.
As well as working within audit and assurance, we are well placed to assist resorts of all types (fixed or floating weeks, points clubs, hybrid arrangements, etc), developers and governing bodies.
“Recent projects include assisting in the setting up of TATOC Consumer Helpline as a registered charity for the benefit of timeshare consumers. Stuart Carrington is a member of RDO and a regular speaker at TATOC conferences. He has also assisted in the industry’s ongoing work with regards to exit strategies, perpetuity clauses and alternative income streams”.
The 3 Directors in the “Helpline” charity are all involved with, connected to, and receive money from TATOC. They are affiliated with many timeshare resorts, the timeshare industry, and the RDO.
The 3 Director of the “Helpline” are not representative independence as they are all servants or agents of TATOC.
When an application and appeal was made to the charities commission the commission would not give TATOC (The Association of Timeshare Owners Committees Limited) the status The charity commission said:-
“The Helpline was formerly operated by the TATOC Consumer Association (“the Association”), a consumer association for timeshare owners, “run by timeshare owners for timeshare owners”, which we had declined to register as a charity on the basis that it was not exclusively charitable. However, we advised that the Association’s Helpline had the potential to be charitable. A separate organisation was set up to run the Helpline and an application submitted to register it as a charity.”
Potential to be a charity
How to realise that potential and get charitable status?
The Charity Commission said:-
“This case was considered in Decision Review, following our formal rejection of the application on the basis that we were not satisfied that the TATOC Consumer Helpline (“the Helpline”) was charitable”.
The reason for this belief was because “Helpline” was controlled by “TATOC” and their objectives were not charitable
Changes therefore had to be made, so as to make the “Helpline” application acceptable. This led to the resignation of Harry Taylor in December 2014 from “Helpline Limited”. Further a reconfiguration of the objects of the “Helpline” was altered so as to reflex a different purpose of the “Helpline”.
The Charity Commission before the amendment said:-
“The Helpline’s objects did not declare wholly charitable purposes, and we had concerns that it had not been set up to target specific charitable purposes. However, we acknowledged that some of the purposes did have the potential to be charitable. We formally rejected the Helpline’s application.
The Helpline’s objects were amended and the applicant sought a review of our decision to not register the Helpline in view of the amended objects and some additional information provided”
What happened was that TATOC changed the objects, and Harry Taylor resigned from the board.
That new configured purpose was more or less described as “assisting all consumers with regards to scammers and cold-callers”. Nothing to do with timeshare and timeshare problems! That said when you call the “TATOC Helpline” and are experiencing timeshare problems you are filtered back through to Harry Taylor.
Those consumer problems are generally to do with exiting timeshare and the unscrupulous scammers and cold callers who cheat a living.
“Helpline” collates the information on scammers and passes that information to KwikChex in respect to exit’s you are passed to TATOC and are faced with Harry Taylor.
TATOC therefore is key to what happens with “Helpline” is controlled by TATOC which is not and was never intended to be a charity.
TATOC is linked to and sponsored by timeshare resorts, the timeshare industry and its affiliates, like Diamond Resorts (Harry Taylor is there representative), Silverpoint (Harry Taylor supports his enterprise), Aroma Spice and Stuart Lamont (are TATOC’s partner), Club la Costa helps finance (TATOC) etc.
To complete the picture many hold a belief that TATOC stands for The Association of Timeshare Owners Committees Limited. On the 15th of the April 2008 the new Directors changed its name from that to Timeshare Association (Timeshare Owners and Committees) Ltd. There is a very subtle change in that the new name was created for a purpose and the 2nd name reflexes two camps Timeshare owners and committees.
The company Reg No. is 04337250 and its registered office is located at Somerset House Temple Street, Birmingham, B2 5DJ
It has £43,144 in cash however it has a retained net value of £-2,103. Its growing but has never had any value.
—————- 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Cash £7,826 £19,542 £26,036 £20,123 £43,144
Net Worth £-25,337 £-21,683 £-11,921 £-7,799 £-2,103
TATOC Directors are
Miss Emily Veronica Collins 07-03-2014
Mr Geoffrey Neil Chapman 11-03-2007
Mr Harry Taylor 12-03-2011
Mr John Vernon Woodward 07-03-2014
The board of TATOC is mainly represented by Diamond Resorts representatives.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk