The Daily Mirror September 22, 2000 Page. 8

MY OTHER CON IS A PORSCHE;
OFFSHORECAR SALES BREAK LAW
BY: Andrew Penman and Michael Greenwood

MEET Richard and David Loach - Britain's most unscrupulous car
salesmen.
Ruled unfit to run companies and banned from acting as directors, the
Nottingham-born brothers are now using a Caribbean island to try to get
round the law.
Micronet Showroom Inc, of which Richard is director and David
international sales manager, is registered in the Virgin Islands.
But it is trading from an office in Nottingham - a breach of the law
which could see the brothers jailed for up to two years.
Micronet sells imported prestige cars via the internet, as did the
Loachs' old outfits, Worldwide Vehicle Supplies UK Ltd and Eximart Ltd.
Worldwide was shut down by the High Court last year with debts of more
than pounds 1million after an investigation by the Department of Trade
and Industry found that the brothers had broken almost every rule in
the book.
In February this year the DTI's evidence went to the High Court, where
Registrar Geoffrey Jaques branded the Loachs "dishonest" and slapped a
13-year ban on them serving as directors.
He was told that the coal miner's sons lied and cheated rather than
admit their firms had failed. And that they had used the assets of one
failing firm to set up another.
It was found that they:
Failed to supply cars.
Failed to account to customers who gave them cars to sell
Failed to settle hire purchase agreements
Traded while knowingly insolvent
Lied about a bank account in Malta
Failed to keep accounts and other records
Squandered thousands in company money on booze, music and shopping in
Ikea.
The court found that when Worldwide began to fail the brothers tried to
prop it up with an investment scheme which promised huge returns.
But the sales pitch, which pledged an "exclusive, rock solid
investment", was riddled with lies and the scheme was not registered
with the Financial Services Authority - another breach of the law.
When Sorted turned up at their Micronet office Richard, 33, and David,
36, denied that they'd done anything wrong.
They said that while they had made mistakes, they didn't deliberately
mislead customers.
Richard said they had set up Micronet with a loan from "a friend". He
claimed he discovered he was breaking the law only six weeks ago and
has since made plans to sell the firm.
David, who sometimes uses the surname Anthony, said the company was
genuine and had supplied 60 cars since it began and a further 50
customers had cars on order.
One is Nick Gold. In February, he paid a pounds 7,860 deposit to order
his dream car, a Porsche Boxster. Delivery was promised in March...
then May... then July.
When the brothers demanded the pounds 31,000 balance but couldn't tell
him the chassis number of the vehicle, an extremely worried Mr Gold
wrote to Sorted.
After our call, he was given his money back. He told us: "I cannot
begin to express how grateful I am for your time and trouble.
"Ten days ago, I was faced with the prospect of spending many hundreds
of pounds of legal fees if I was ever going to see my money again."
Of course we are delighted that the Loachs paid up.
As we left, David, who drives a pounds 60,000 Porsche of his own,
begged: "Don't stitch us up".
Sorry, lads. Our file is already with the DTI.
Caption:
FAST BUCKS: The Loachs failed to deliver - unlike David, front, and his
own Porsche

ends