U.K. Serious Fraud Office investigating Harlequin Resorts?

Harlequin-Warning.co.uk says the Serious Fraud Office is investigating Harlequin

“I have written endlessly to Harlequin requesting responses to specific queries relating to the legal aspect and grounds for the continual refusal to return my three deposits. They have failed to respond. Hence, with lack of legal grounds, they are withholding my monies illegally.

Further, one has to question the legality of refusal to communicate with investors and what view a Court of Law, The Serious Fraud Office, the Government’s companies investigation branch and other governing bodies will take of this.

As stated previously, once I had handed over my money, I was fully in their control. Today, perpetual stress, distress, anxiety, guilt, shame and a deep fear for my and my daughter’s future are constant companions…

Valuable time, which should be spent on making our new life following five years of hellish divorce litigation, is instead spent on attempting to have returned money which is legally mine.

Even the originally agreed return of approximately 68% of my Buccament Bay deposit (only about 29% of my full deposit) has now gone silent. In accordance with my contract, this should be in my bank account by 29/4/2012 – Harlequin refuse to confirm or respond to this

Finally, I am now also reliably informed that the Serious Fraud Office are investigating Harlequin.”

… recently posted at Harlequin-Warning.co.uk

Grain of Salt Time…

The editors at Barbados Free Press remind all that BFP and Harlequin-Warning.co.uk are anonymous websites so don’t rush to declare anything you read here or anywhere without some fact checking of your own. And that doesn’t just apply to anonymous blogs like ours… after all, US Public Radio just issued yet another apology for yet another fictitious news story – this time about Foxconn, one of Apple computers suppliers.

Considering all the smoke ’bout Harlequin though, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the UK Serious Fraud Office has had a file open for some time.

Profile of a writer: Colin Leslie Beadon

The staff and many readers at BFP look forward to the little gifts left here and there on the blog by our friend Colin Leslie Beadon. Sometimes it’s a paragraph or two on some forgotten piece of island or world history – while other times it will be a longer look at society or the environment. Colin’s work is spiced with humour, always a good read and however light-hearted often carries a serious perspective about how people and society do work versus how things should be.

Colin’s latest book is Escapades and Islands, a collection of short stories that are highly influenced by his free-thinking world view and, he’d probably admit, by his rambling and unsettled early life.

He was born in Maymyo Burma in 1935 of Colonial-era parents who were themselves born in India. His mum died early in his life, and his step-mother from 6 years old was Irish-Burmese. Throw in some English Boarding schools, Irish Catholic college in Trinidad where his father became Police Commissioner, and stints as a sailor, aircraft mechanic and oil field rough neck all over the Caribbean and South America and you have some idea of why Colin looks at the world a little differently than people who live, work and die within a few miles of their birthplace.

Fast Fingers has just posted an excellent interview with Colin Leslie Beadon where he talks about his life and his new book…

“The story  ‘First Light’ is based on my arrival in Trinidad, aged twelve, and meeting the first girl I had ever met, who has been my first love ever since. I wrote her as a black girl in the story, but she is of probably blended Irish-Spanish stock, at least her temperament and beauty hinted these bloods, but she is very much a West Indian, though now living in California.  We have never lost touch for long.”

“I started writing aged thirty two in Trinidad, 1967.  Sold my first short story in 1974 , and kept hammering away until the Short Story became  hard to sell by 1995.   So that is about 28 years. But I never stopped writing entirely, doing letters to the Newspapers in Trinidad and Barbados, hundreds of letters I’ve written. And I wrote all the time to friends and family across the world.  Then came the computer and email, then Blog sites…”

From the Fast Fingers author interview – Colin Leslie Beadon: About Me and Writing

Trouble with BFP’s Open discussion forum?

Hi folks,

We’ve had two people report problems posting comments in the Open discussion forum. They type their comments, but the words disappear with no indication of what happened. The comments are not going to the spam bucket, and there’s no reason we can see for this to be happening.

BFP has been unable to duplicate the problem. Clive suggests that readers try clearing their cache, resetting their browser (you can clear your cookies without erasing your bookmarks) and let us know how that works out. If the problem continues it might be because the particular thread is reaching the end of its comments capacity with over 500 comments, but we’ve seen 1000 comments on a thread before we had to archive it before.

Anyway, please clear your cache, dump your cookies and give it another try. Let us know how that works out.

Thanks!