Lincoln gas fitter loses life savings in £150,000 holiday park nightmare

Dunston Fens The Hideaway holiday park under fire as clients "lose everything"

Sensible investment?

It does not take much time talking with Lincoln resident Christopher Lightfoot, to realise that he is a thoughtful, intelligent man. Not a person to make rash, foolish decisions, and far from someone you might consider an easy "mark" for a tricky salesman.

Nevertheless, Christopher and his partner (who is a private woman and has asked not to be named here) have lost the bulk of their life savings thanks to an all too familiar sounding holiday park scheme.

In 2020, medical salesman Christopher had just sold his house and was between jobs when COVID hit in 2020. He decided to retrain as a gas engineer and was able to take part of the course remotely during lockdown.

Having no income Christopher, 50, was evaluating financial options and clicked on an advert for what promised to be a holiday lodge investment. He was quickly contacted by a man called Richard from Liv Lodges who painted a rosy picture of a booming UK holiday market. Liv Lodges were so confident in their investment scheme that they were offering a guaranteed rental return of 8% (net) per annum.

They also offered an exit plan called Put Options. This was Liv Lodges (who were a trading name for a company called LL Lincoln LTD) guaranteeing 3 "buy back" offers. If Christopher wanted to sell the lodge back, Liv would buy it for 105% of the initial value at year five, for 107% at year seven, or 110% at year ten.

Richard followed up by sending a glossy brochure which confirmed the pitch in writing. Christopher and his partner booked a date to visit the site.

Dunston Fens - The hideaway

The couple arrived at the Southrey site, ten miles from Lincoln city centre, to find a holiday park in the process of renovation. Shabby, older caravans were being removed and several impressive-looking brand new lodges were being installed.

They were met by directors Chris P and Jamie who spoke enthusiastically for several hours about the investment scheme. Every lodge was to have its own hot tub, and the couple were impressed by a high quality animation of how the finished park would look. Chris P claimed to be an ex professional footballer. He said that he had bought several lodges himself and that other professional footballers had invested in the park, including Rio Ferdinand and Andreas Pereira. Jamie and Chris P showed the couple a brochure with an august list of board members including financiers, solicitors and even one Lord!

After being taken through impressive looking spreadsheets showing detailed profit forecasts, the couple were convinced.

Christopher and his partner had the asking price of £149,990 in the bank from his house sale. Following a great deal of mistake corrections and alterations of the contract, and a visit to their home from Jamie (who brought his 3 year old daughter with him, presumably to charm Christopher and his partner) they went ahead with the purchase.

"After all," says Christopher, "would somebody bring their daughter to a meeting if they were trying to scam you?"

Everything fine... at first

For the first three and a half years, the park lived up to its promises. The lodge was rented out, providing a monthly income of around £1000 for the couple. During this time Christopher did not notice Rio Ferdinand or other Premier League stars gracing the park. But he did see a lot of units being finished and sold. "It seemed to be a good couple of hundred units between our Liv Lodges park and the others at Bridlington and Norfolk," comments Christopher. "When you consider that they sell for £100,000 to £150,00 per lodge, you are talking tens of millions of pounds in sales volume."

Then out of the blue, in 2024, the rental payments stopped arriving. Christopher and his partner followed up with the park, and (when they eventually managed to get any response at all) were given excuses and promises that the money was coming soon. Several months later, LL Lincoln Ltd dissolved.

"That was conveniently (for them) before anyone qualified for Put Option 1. As far as we understand things, nobody managed to sell their unit back to the park for the promised 105%. They have had huge amounts of money and it is difficult to see where that money has gone," says Christopher.

Rental income was to change drastically too. "Instead of the guaranteed £1000 a month which influenced us to buy the lodge, we were now in a position where we had to sign up with a new park management company called 5 Star Park Developments Limited. (since changed their name to 5 Star Park Management Limited)

"The new contract meant that in the first three months, despite a 90% occupancy rate and over £9000 in rental income we actually owe the management company £350 after all the costs are taken out of the rental money. The conditions we bought under would have netted us £3000 in the same period."

Christopher is now unable to sell the lodge. "It can't be moved from the site, and is an unattractive proposition for any potential buyer. We have basically lost the full £150,000. We are not making money from rental and instead have these ongoing costs.

"This has devastated us to the point where my partner has become ill with anxiety and stress. Our savings have gone. The future we have tried our best to safeguard is in tatters. Even now we are facing a solicitor's demand for £6600 in overdue ground rent, which we were told would be paid by the new management company and just can't afford. To not pay it means we forfeit the lodge"

Hope

After hearing an advert on the radio, Christopher got in touch with Holiday Park Advice Centre (the holiday park division of European Consumer Claims - ECC) and the company are now fighting to get Christopher his money back.

"Unfortunately Christopher's story is not an unusual one," notes Greg Wilson, CEO of ECC. "Anyone paying attention to the media over the last couple of years couldn't fail to notice volume of consumer abuse being perpetrated by the holiday park industry.

"Unlike the timeshare industry, which was the previous focus of holiday mis-selling and consumer abuse; the holiday park sector is relatively regulation free, and despite petitions to the government, this is unlikely to change in the near future.

"Luckily for people like Christopher, there are various legal avenues open to claims experts and consumer specialist solicitors that can help people in this type of situation to recoup their losses."