Safe Hands funerals collapse: JERSEY COURT freezes funds pending the outcome of SFO criminal investigation.

The Serious Fraud Office has secured a restraint order over funds in a JERSEY BANK ACCOUNT as part of its investigation into the collapse of Safe Hands Plans, the pre-paid funerals company, which has left about 46,000 customers with a combined £60 million shortfall.

A recent insolvency filing reveals.

• The order was granted by the Royal Court of Jersey in September after an application presented by the SFO relating to funds held on the Channel Island,
• “Pending the outcome of its criminal investigation into the defendant”,

The SFO, led by Nick Ephgrave, announced a criminal investigation in OCTOBER LAST YEAR into a suspected fraud at SAFE HANDS AND SHP CAPITAL HOLDINGS, its parent company. Ephgrave said.

• “Thousands of individuals from all corners of the UK lost peace and security after being sold a product on the basis it would help reduce the burden on their loved ones upon their death,”

Administrators at FRP Advisory were appointed in March 2022 after Safe Hands withdrew an application to the Financial Conduct Authority before it took on regulation of the pre-paid funerals market.

In a progress report to creditors last month FRP said

• It estimated between £7.06 million and £9.39 million would be recovered for funeral plan holders from trust assets,
• Compared with estimated claims of between £64 million and £70 million.

18 October 2024 = The Administrator’s Progress Report for the period 23 March 2024 to 22 September 2024 pursuant to Rule 18.3 of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 SAID

The administrators have, meanwhile, separately been pursuing Dave Milson, 67, a director of Safe Hands between July 2017 and February 2020 and majority shareholder until the sale to Wells’s SHP Capital.

FRP’s investigations have previously found that about

• £30 million went to SHP Capital after customers’ funeral trust money was “invested” in the offshore funds.

The administrators are investigating

• Dave Milson for allegedly selling the business to RICHARD WELLS, a motor racing enthusiast, in February 2020 through an “inherently dishonest” scheme.
• The deal involved the “misapplication of trust moneys for the improper purpose of financing the acquisition”, a High Court claim filed in September last year alleged.
• Milson, in his defence filed in December, has denied the claim, saying the “allegation of dishonesty is inadequately particularised, as are the allegations of misapplication of undefined trust moneys and improper purpose”.

SHP Capital, which operated from a serviced address in Mayfair,

• Put millions of pounds into related companies and
• Also lent money to a film called The Chelsea Cowboy, they have found.

Customers had been told their payments would be “invested securely” in a ringfenced trust and the company’s marketing featured the late England goalkeeper Gordon Banks.

Following an application by the administrator,

• The Jersey court made a freezing order in July last year restraining Milson from removing assets from the island worth up to £12.3 million.
• The order was granted after an alleged attempt by Milson to transfer about £2.2 million held in a joint UBS bank account with his wife, according to the High Court claim.

In Milson’s defence he said

• The funds included money from an unrelated property sale and had sought the transfer “as a result of publicity over the Credit Suisse bank failure and its takeover by UBS”.

WELLS

• Wells, 38, declared himself bankrupt in September last year, prompting FRP to halt any claim against him and to submit a proof of debt in the bankruptcy for £28.7 million.
• Wells has previously said that he “strongly refuted” the suggestion he had been involved in misappropriating or mishandling customer funds.

Source

• https://www.safehandsplans.co.uk/
• https://www.thetimes.com/article/3fb35aa7-b786-4765-b57b-0c90c9781390?shareToken=b1b649244027d01bf0b4de5e59f60061
• https://insolvency-insider.co.uk/p/shp-capital-holdings-limited-case-update