Alex Hope, 41, has been convicted of fraud and money laundering after using £81,000 in fraudulent loans to buy a house in Puerto Calero. The UK Insolvency Service is investigating to recover the funds.
A two-storey semi-detached house in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, was purchased with money from loans obtained fraudulently. This has been determined by the UK Insolvency Service, which has reported the conviction of Alex Hope, a 41-year-old British businessman, and his partner Liam Jones, 42, for the crimes committed in relation to the purchase.
Hope, who ran the cannabidiol (CBD) product company CBD Asylum based in Hull, obtained a public loan of £25,000 in 2020 for his consultancy A Hope Ltd. To do this, he declared that the company’s turnover was £100,000, when in reality the income was less than £13,000, according to the British agency's statement.
A year later, in 2021, Hope and Jones, as directors of Virtutum Limited (which operated under the CBD Asylum brand), applied for a private loan of £56,000. To obtain it, they signed a personal guarantee stating that there were no legal proceedings against them, despite the fact that, according to the Insolvency Service, both had been sued since 2019 by a law firm specialising in litigation for approximately £800,000.
The money from both loans was transferred through a series of bank accounts before being sent abroad. Specifically, the funds were part of a payment of €245,825 that was used to acquire the property in Puerto Calero, registered in the name of Hope and his wife.
Hope and Jones pleaded guilty on the same day that their trial was set to begin at Hull Crown Court, held last June. The conviction was handed down on July 27.
Hope was convicted of two counts of fraud, one count of money laundering, and another for failing to disclose the value of shares in Aspen Homes Hull Limited during his bankruptcy proceedings. The court imposed a three-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, an eight-year disqualification from acting as a company director, and the obligation to complete 250 hours of unpaid work.
Jones was convicted of one count of fraud related to the £56,000 loan. The sentence imposes ten months of imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months, a two-year disqualification as a company director, and 100 hours of unpaid work.
The chief investigator of the Insolvency Service, Mark Stephens, stated that "Alex Hope deliberately lied about his company's turnover to obtain a Covid loan intended to help businesses survive during the pandemic." Stephens added that "he subsequently laundered the money from both fraudulent loans through a chain of bank accounts and used those funds to contribute to the purchase of a property abroad."
Stephens also noted that "Hope and Liam Jones also lied about the legal proceedings they had open to fraudulently obtain that second loan" and assured that "the Insolvency Service remains committed to holding accountable those who exploit loan schemes and financial systems for personal gain."
The Insolvency Service has reported that it has initiated actions to recover the funds obtained fraudulently under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The house in Puerto Calero, a luxury residential area in Lanzarote, remains the property of Hope and his wife, although the British agency is now seeking to confiscate it to recover the defrauded money. Neighbours on the island may be on the lookout for possible legal movements affecting the property.
You may also like
