UK winds up three bogus biofuel-related companies

In the UK, Elcourt Ltd, WSR Hawker Ltd and Devo Group Ltd were wound up in the public interest on 9 June 2020 in the High Court before Judge Prentis. The Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator of the companies.

In considering the petitions, the court heard that all three companies promoted and sold investments into sustainable energy processing schemes.

Elcourt traded as AD Baxton and claimed it provided brokering services, offering people the opportunity to acquire bonds in the two connected renewable energy companies, WSR Hawker Ltd and Devo Group Ltd.

However, the company was found to never had any presence at its registered address and in April 2019, the financial regulators issued a warning against Elcourt for providing unauthorized financial services and products.

Devo Group said it collected used cooking oil from various food and catering vendors within the UK and Europe to convert into biodiesel, while WSR Hawker described itself as a developer of wind power generation sites. However neither company had any official presence at their registered addresses.

Following petitions submitted by the Insolvency Service on behalf of the Secretary of State the court found that the entirety of the companies’ operations was a sham.

The court also heard that none of the bogus sustainable energy companies cooperated with the investigation and from the limited amount of data available, investigators uncovered that at least six investors made investments of £525,000.