KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, March 11, IWN – A court in the United Kingdom has rejected a bid to freeze the assets of Buccament Bay Resort and Harlequin Property as investors tried to recoup their money.
Travel Weekly reported Ann Wells, Harlequin’s head of sales as saying solicitors for six purchasers of properties at Buccament Bay Resort, applied for a freezing order against Harlequin Property and Buccament Bay Resort Ltd.
“Harlequin is pleased to say that the court refused to grant the application and we are trading as normal.”
She further said that Harlequin “denies any wrongdoing and looks forward to clearing its name in relation to the other allegations that are currently being referred to in the press”.
Meanwhile, Echo, another Internet publication, said the bid to freeze the assets was ended after the investors, who were trying to get back a total of 500,000 pounds sterling, were paid out.
Echo says that Harlequin has sold 6,000 off-plan holiday units since 2005 but built just 300 at Buccament Bay.
It quoted Gareth Fatchett, solicitor for the firm that brought the case, as saying that their primary aim was for the return of the six investors’ deposits.
“We now have 20 more investors seeking refunds due to missed completion dates,” said Fatchett, who visited St. Vincent in February as part of the case.
PM appreciates investor’s concerns
And, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, in a letter to the BBC last week, said he appreciates “the concerns of individual investors who placed investments with Harlequin.
“I am uneasy, too, about some local suppliers of goods and services in St. Vincent and the Grenadines who mav not been paid in full on a timely basis,” he further said, in a letter in which he complained about an encounter with two BBC journalists in Barbados in February.
“As far as the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is concerned, we have done nothing wrong or improper. Like Barbados and St. Lucia, St. Vincent and eh Grenadines facilitated the investment b offering the usual investment incentives. Thus, the Government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines cannot be held responsible for any investment of management challenges of the Developers of disputes between them and those in the United Kingdom who are disgruntled for one reason or another. These are for the Developers to resolve,” he said in the letter to Tim Giles, editor of the BBC’s “Panorama”, which is producing an investigative piece about Harlequin.
“St. Vincent and the Grenadines provides a sound investment climate and a well regulated open, transparent, democratic society of high international standards,” Gonsalves further said in his letter.