Posted on: 15th Apr, 2010 10:49 am
anyone heard of northumbria mortgages?reason being as i think i have been had over by a nigel mcclements who says he works for them,they are FSA regulated but his personal search comes up as in-active and has taken £250 from me.I have called the fsa and they can confirm there are more cases from the same company,any help please
Can Helen or one of the other people in this forum affected please call me - I'm a journalist from The Cumberland News, and working on this story just now.
I cant believe this. We were recommended this guy from someone who used him about 9 months ago. We contacted him back in April and he gave a quote for a mortgage. We tryed contacting him for weeks to no avail. Then all of a sudden, he reappears, gets my hubby to agree a mortgage on the phone while he was busy (Based on my income with no communication with me) and then demands that we pay him £699 up front for valuation fees. He rang us last night demanding it. We transferred him £150 last night! Have sent him an email demanding it back now. Thank goodness we wouldnt pay him the full amount! how he has the guts to continue calling people when this is all over the net is beyond me!
OMG his still asking people for money , what are the police doing !!!!! im gona ring them again on monday and this time kick off !!!! hay if you have a number emma pop it up on here
Having reported the theft of our money to Cumbria Police as per the details in tictac's post on page 1 I have just had a telephone call from CID with an update. They are pursuing this matter and currently have a list of about 20 people. Allegedly Nigel is working abroad to try and earn money to pay his debts but this could just be yet another lie!!
The more people that contact Cumbria Police the better. Please therefore ring them on 0845 3300247. You will get through to the Switchboard but I was told by CID that if you tell them you have a complaint of fraud against Northumbria Mortgages they will take your details which will be passed through the system to CID who will call you back at some point as they are working their way through contacting everyone that's been a victim.
The more people that contact Cumbria Police the better. Please therefore ring them on 0845 3300247. You will get through to the Switchboard but I was told by CID that if you tell them you have a complaint of fraud against Northumbria Mortgages they will take your details which will be passed through the system to CID who will call you back at some point as they are working their way through contacting everyone that's been a victim.
Wow how he is still doing this,what the hell are the police doing??He should have been arrested weeks ago when all this came to light..
Hey guys, i called the police today after giving him 48 hours to return the money, i then gave him 3 hours notice to return the money at 10am, nothing, so i called the police, who cut me off, then i called back and some lass told me that i had to make the complaint through my bank first. My bank advised me that they dont want to know because i made the payment, I tried to get into my local police station to see if they could help and they were closed. I will have to ring cumbria police back again now. i am so fed up, i know its not as much as the others but its more then we could really afford. :(
taken from the net....
A mortgage broker is the subject of a police manhunt after allegations of financial irregularities and a string of complaints, according to reports.
Nigel Alexander McClements, who used to trade as Northumbria Mortgages, is believed to have gone to Ireland after police received 17 formal complaints relating to the mortgage broker.
Detectives are trying to trace the 41-year-old father-of-two, who lives north of Carlisle, Cumbria.
In June, McClements had his permission cancelled by the Financial Services Authority after failing to pay fees and levies of £817.94.
Commenting on Mortgagefit.com property forum many former clients allege that McClements owes them money.
One post says: “This guy owes us £275 from about six months now, still no luck in getting it back.â€
Another adds: “He rang me a couple of weeks ago with a brilliant remortgaging offer and I sent him £500. I have not heard from him and he does not answer emails or telephone calls.â€
Somebody alleging to be McClements commented on the website, he says: “I, unfortunately, have recently had my license taken away by the FSA and have been unable to complete cases.â€
He is believed to have disappeared shortly after sending this message.
Mortgage Strategy tried to contact McClements but he was unavailable for comment.
A mortgage broker is the subject of a police manhunt after allegations of financial irregularities and a string of complaints, according to reports.
Nigel Alexander McClements, who used to trade as Northumbria Mortgages, is believed to have gone to Ireland after police received 17 formal complaints relating to the mortgage broker.
Detectives are trying to trace the 41-year-old father-of-two, who lives north of Carlisle, Cumbria.
In June, McClements had his permission cancelled by the Financial Services Authority after failing to pay fees and levies of £817.94.
Commenting on Mortgagefit.com property forum many former clients allege that McClements owes them money.
One post says: “This guy owes us £275 from about six months now, still no luck in getting it back.â€
Another adds: “He rang me a couple of weeks ago with a brilliant remortgaging offer and I sent him £500. I have not heard from him and he does not answer emails or telephone calls.â€
Somebody alleging to be McClements commented on the website, he says: “I, unfortunately, have recently had my license taken away by the FSA and have been unable to complete cases.â€
He is believed to have disappeared shortly after sending this message.
Mortgage Strategy tried to contact McClements but he was unavailable for comment.
I just can't belive what I am reading! After finally getting a firm offer on our house today and losing numbers on my phone, I googled Northumbria Mortgages to contact Nigel as there had been no response to emails..... scammed!
I used Nigel a couple of years ago and everything went swimmingly, although committing to fixed rate mortgage and the interest rates went plummeting 2 months after - we can't exactly blame him for this. Nigel contacted me again 2 years later - I thought the term was 3 years but he convinced me it was 2 - a fool for not checking, but I suppose with a hectic lifestyle there has to be an element of trust along the way! Not anymore! He called to say he could arrange a mortgage for me, all bells and whistles etc conincidently we wanted to move so this all fit in very (too) nicely.
He said that if I transferred £375 it would secure my mortgage ready for valuation, if I didn't go ahead we would always get this refunded. He was really persistent, I remember thinking...'yeah OK i'll transfer the money but I am not anywhere near a PC! I did think it was a weird way to conduct business, but as I had used him before I couldn't see what the big deal was. He must have rung me 3 times in 2 hours to see whether I had trasferred the money and I had to end up saying...'Look, I will do it when I am home and I will email you once it's done'. In hindsight and all that...
Basically we had an offer on our house a few weeks later, lower than expected so I called Nigel to see if the figures still worked out. He was tricky to get hold of, but after a few attempts i seemed to get there. He always used the excuse he'd been in meetings, so who was I to say, NO YOU WEREN't!!Well he confirmed that even at the lower price we would be clear, but this deal fell through. A couple of months later things were not appearing to be too proserous, so I emailed him for a remortgage on our current one...nothing. Still didn't think of anything, but today we have had an offer on our house again... having lost all my numbers on a recent phone transfer, I googled Northumbria Mortgages... Shock! We've been done!
I sympathise with you all and I am gutted. I am also reething at his pityful emails to people about how stressed he's been and how things have been so on the line for him. For us after spending a pointless £500 on a HIPS which is no longer needed and £375 with the 'masterful' Nigel, we will not bemoving to our dissappointment, also findind out that our current morgage is in fact for another year and it would have cost us £3000 to repay it early, so nothing way true. All the estate agents meetings, viewings on the house (endless tidying with a 2 year old!), deposits, contracts, time spent trawlling the net for new properties, gleeful conversation with people about our soon to be HOUSE move, new areas, new searches for school, has all been an absolute waster because of one man..... Mr Nigel Alexander McClements...the man who promises the world, who in fact now has nothing.
I advise you all to contact your local police station who will report the incident to Cumbria Police.
Register your complaint with the FSA and then contact the FSCA. Fill out the INITIAL forms on their website as a PDF or printable format and send back to them. It is now a sit and wait game but I do hope we all do get the compensation we deserve for being such innocent victims of a cruel and selfish man. NIGEL McCLEMENTS if you are reading this then stop feeling pityfully sorry for yourself, face up to what you have done. I don't see why you should get a chance to rebuild your life somewhere else when you have left such a trail of destruction behind and short changed so many people.
I feel for your wife and 2 kids - I just hope you haven't destroyed their life as well as your own.
RANT OVER
Michelle
I used Nigel a couple of years ago and everything went swimmingly, although committing to fixed rate mortgage and the interest rates went plummeting 2 months after - we can't exactly blame him for this. Nigel contacted me again 2 years later - I thought the term was 3 years but he convinced me it was 2 - a fool for not checking, but I suppose with a hectic lifestyle there has to be an element of trust along the way! Not anymore! He called to say he could arrange a mortgage for me, all bells and whistles etc conincidently we wanted to move so this all fit in very (too) nicely.
He said that if I transferred £375 it would secure my mortgage ready for valuation, if I didn't go ahead we would always get this refunded. He was really persistent, I remember thinking...'yeah OK i'll transfer the money but I am not anywhere near a PC! I did think it was a weird way to conduct business, but as I had used him before I couldn't see what the big deal was. He must have rung me 3 times in 2 hours to see whether I had trasferred the money and I had to end up saying...'Look, I will do it when I am home and I will email you once it's done'. In hindsight and all that...
Basically we had an offer on our house a few weeks later, lower than expected so I called Nigel to see if the figures still worked out. He was tricky to get hold of, but after a few attempts i seemed to get there. He always used the excuse he'd been in meetings, so who was I to say, NO YOU WEREN't!!Well he confirmed that even at the lower price we would be clear, but this deal fell through. A couple of months later things were not appearing to be too proserous, so I emailed him for a remortgage on our current one...nothing. Still didn't think of anything, but today we have had an offer on our house again... having lost all my numbers on a recent phone transfer, I googled Northumbria Mortgages... Shock! We've been done!
I sympathise with you all and I am gutted. I am also reething at his pityful emails to people about how stressed he's been and how things have been so on the line for him. For us after spending a pointless £500 on a HIPS which is no longer needed and £375 with the 'masterful' Nigel, we will not bemoving to our dissappointment, also findind out that our current morgage is in fact for another year and it would have cost us £3000 to repay it early, so nothing way true. All the estate agents meetings, viewings on the house (endless tidying with a 2 year old!), deposits, contracts, time spent trawlling the net for new properties, gleeful conversation with people about our soon to be HOUSE move, new areas, new searches for school, has all been an absolute waster because of one man..... Mr Nigel Alexander McClements...the man who promises the world, who in fact now has nothing.
I advise you all to contact your local police station who will report the incident to Cumbria Police.
Register your complaint with the FSA and then contact the FSCA. Fill out the INITIAL forms on their website as a PDF or printable format and send back to them. It is now a sit and wait game but I do hope we all do get the compensation we deserve for being such innocent victims of a cruel and selfish man. NIGEL McCLEMENTS if you are reading this then stop feeling pityfully sorry for yourself, face up to what you have done. I don't see why you should get a chance to rebuild your life somewhere else when you have left such a trail of destruction behind and short changed so many people.
I feel for your wife and 2 kids - I just hope you haven't destroyed their life as well as your own.
RANT OVER
Michelle
Hiya
I have been emailing Nigel every day asking for news. He contacted me 13th July to tell me that his business has collapsed and he is getting some money together to pay us back and some others.
What does he want? Sympathy? I dont think so! Stupid man! He was still contacting people for money when he knew it was wrong! Getting so frustrated now.
I have been emailing Nigel every day asking for news. He contacted me 13th July to tell me that his business has collapsed and he is getting some money together to pay us back and some others.
What does he want? Sympathy? I dont think so! Stupid man! He was still contacting people for money when he knew it was wrong! Getting so frustrated now.
He has been promising us since the begining of april and have not heard from him since the end of May/June, he will promise many things but be sure of this you probably wont see your money again. He is been investigated by the police i contacted carslise police and had to go to my local station and give a statement for which i was in there over 3 hours having to go through all the e-mails that have been sent back and forth with empty promises and lies from Nigel, we were sympathetic at first but when you see what he has actually done and conned people out of its disgraceful i hope he gets caught after running off to Ireland and ends up in prison where he belongs! i would sugest that if you havent yet report it to the police the more evidance the better chance of putting him away once he has been caught!
Mr McClements is now in South Africa, but he hasn't stopped his scamming. He phoned me last week, I didn't know him from a bar of soap. Turns out he got my details from a CV I'd posted on a recruitment website when I first returned to South Africa from the UK. Mr McClements claimed to be working for the DeVere Group and tried to convince me of a fantastic investment opportunity they had, all I had to do was give him my UK pension details, my National Insurance number, my address ...and he would reinvest it in Guernsey & make me loads of money! The DeVere Group has been notified, as have the FSA in the UK.
...Be careful where you post your CV.
...Be careful where you post your CV.
Mr McClements is now in South Africa, but he hasn't stopped his scamming. He phoned me last week, I didn't know him from a bar of soap. Turns out he got my details from a CV I'd posted on a recruitment website when I first returned to South Africa from the UK. Mr McClements claimed to be working for the DeVere Group and tried to convince me of a fantastic investment opportunity they had, all I had to do was give him my UK pension details, my National Insurance number, my address ...and he would reinvest it in Guernsey & make me loads of money! The DeVere Group has been notified, as have the FSA in the UK.
...Be careful where you post your CV.
...Be careful where you post your CV.
I reported Mr McClements to the DeVere Group who he said he worked for. I received the following email from them yesterday. You never know though, could it be HIM masquerading as someone from DeVere again?! This was the email, supposedly from the Risk Manager, DeVere Africa.
***
Dear ...
I tried to call you this afternoon but it seems that you are extremely busy... I wanted to both apologise and thank you!
Thank you for bringing Nigel McClementUK activities to our attention! He managed to keep us all unaware of his history till now, but, needless to say, he no longer works for us from Monday morning (the first working day after your email was forwarded through to us).
I would also like to apologise for the way in which Mr McClements contacted you and tried to solicit business from you. It is certainly not the way that we train our consultants and, in any event, Nigel should not yet have been contacting potential clients until his training program had been completed and he had obtained a working permit.
What I do want to, however, assure you of is that we do not operate a scam (although I have to admit that if Nigel had approached me as he did you I would also have been highly suspicious!). We have strict procedures which our consultants are trained to follow. Our clients deserve, at very least, a face to face meeting with the consultant before any investment opportunity is even discussed. Thereafter we require a full confidential fact find questionnaire to be completed to ascertain the clients requirements and needs before any proposal is made, which would be based on those needs.
Your email and subsequent investigation has resulted in us implementing tighter controls on our new consultants, especially when they have not come from South Africa. We have also implemented tighter background checks on our expat employees.
I fully understand if you would not like to have anything further to do with deVere, but should you wish to investigate your options regarding any frozen UK pension (or offshore investment) please let me know and I will have one of our competent consultants make contact with you.
***
Dear ...
I tried to call you this afternoon but it seems that you are extremely busy... I wanted to both apologise and thank you!
Thank you for bringing Nigel McClementUK activities to our attention! He managed to keep us all unaware of his history till now, but, needless to say, he no longer works for us from Monday morning (the first working day after your email was forwarded through to us).
I would also like to apologise for the way in which Mr McClements contacted you and tried to solicit business from you. It is certainly not the way that we train our consultants and, in any event, Nigel should not yet have been contacting potential clients until his training program had been completed and he had obtained a working permit.
What I do want to, however, assure you of is that we do not operate a scam (although I have to admit that if Nigel had approached me as he did you I would also have been highly suspicious!). We have strict procedures which our consultants are trained to follow. Our clients deserve, at very least, a face to face meeting with the consultant before any investment opportunity is even discussed. Thereafter we require a full confidential fact find questionnaire to be completed to ascertain the clients requirements and needs before any proposal is made, which would be based on those needs.
Your email and subsequent investigation has resulted in us implementing tighter controls on our new consultants, especially when they have not come from South Africa. We have also implemented tighter background checks on our expat employees.
I fully understand if you would not like to have anything further to do with deVere, but should you wish to investigate your options regarding any frozen UK pension (or offshore investment) please let me know and I will have one of our competent consultants make contact with you.
Oh my goodness - this man has no conscience at all!!!!!!!!!!!
Bye bye money i guess
Bye bye money i guess
:cry:
We too have been conned out of £475 by this crook. He emailed us one evening offering us a great mortgage deal which he told us was with Woolwich. We sent him the money and then he went incommunicado apart from the occasional email asking us whether we had found a property yet. We spent time and money seeking a property and jobs in a new area and were just about to agree on a house when we contacted him to tell him that we wanted to go ahead, and found we could not contact him. We tried phoning and emailing all to no avail. Now we realise that we have been conned and we need this money back. Has anybody managed to ascertain where he is? One of the email addresses he gave us last week was in America. Does anyone know whether anybody still lives at his old address and who they are?
Kofi
We too have been conned out of £475 by this crook. He emailed us one evening offering us a great mortgage deal which he told us was with Woolwich. We sent him the money and then he went incommunicado apart from the occasional email asking us whether we had found a property yet. We spent time and money seeking a property and jobs in a new area and were just about to agree on a house when we contacted him to tell him that we wanted to go ahead, and found we could not contact him. We tried phoning and emailing all to no avail. Now we realise that we have been conned and we need this money back. Has anybody managed to ascertain where he is? One of the email addresses he gave us last week was in America. Does anyone know whether anybody still lives at his old address and who they are?
Kofi