MP calls for ID fraud probe into property firm boss

Scott El Paraiso was jailed in 2009 for fraud under his birth name, Adam Minett

An MP has called for a police investigation into allegations of identity theft and fraud faced by a firm founded by a convicted conman who hid his criminal past behind a new name.

Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson spoke after a BBC investigation into national company Urban Evolution found evidence up to 30 fake company directorships may have been created in an attempt to block leaseholders from taking control of their building's management company.

In February, the BBC revealed the Merseyside-based company's boss, Scott El Paraiso, had been jailed for fraud in 2009 under his original name, Adam Minett.

When approached for comment he said the directors were leaseholders in the building.

The owners of flats in Arndale House, in Liverpool, told the BBC the claim the directors were leaseholders was not true.

Mr El Paraiso had claimed that the directors appointed to Arndale House's management company were leaseholders

Wirral-born Mr El Paraiso was known as Adam Minett when he was jailed in 2009 for a £25,000 theft and fraud of customers of his plumbing firm.

He had also tried to impersonate his landlord to take out two loans in his name and was, a judge said, guilty of a "prolonged campaign of serious dishonesty".

When he came out of jail, having served just over a year of his four-year sentence, he went away to work at sea.

The BBC has learned he lied to maritime colleagues that he had been in the armed forces.

He set up Urban Evolution after returning to Merseyside in about 2016, and later told some of its customers that while away at sea he had been the captain of superyachts, including one owned by Bono and The Edge from U2.

The BBC has established he had one tour on board the U2 stars' yacht as a chief mate in late 2014 and early 2015, but was not its captain.

When challenged by the BBC in February, he admitted to being Mr Minett but denied that he had changed his name to hide his criminal past, saying that he did so for personal reasons.

Mr El Paraiso has claimed to have been the captain of a superyacht owned by Bono and The Edge from U2

The BBC has found evidence that a former tenant of Urban Evolution was registered for several months as the effective owner of a company linked to Urban Evolution.

The effective ownership of UE Services Ltd was put into the name of Nigerian-born Anifah Bhadmus in 2022, but she said she had no knowledge of this until the BBC contacted her earlier this year.

She said the lack of proper checks on people being registered as company officers was "concerning" and that it was "unsettling to hear how such discrepancies could occur".

It is not clear why Ms Bhadmus' name was used in this way. To knowingly register false information at Companies House is a crime under the Companies Act.

Ms Bhadmus's case mirrored that of another former Urban Evolution tenant, Omani former student Hamza Al-Huseini. A name virtually identical to his was listed as the controlling shareholder of 34 firms that bought up flats in a Liverpool student accommodation block for £5,000 each.

Mr El Paraiso and his business partner Ross Spencer were directors of all 34 firms. They claimed their Omani investor, listed on the companies as Hamaz Al-Huseini, was a different person.

Like Ms Bhadmus, Hamza Al-Huseini, a former Urban Evolution tenant, believed his identity must have been stolen

Leaseholders in Arndale House said they had suspicions that a raft of directors appointed to their building's management company were fake, and had been invented so Urban Evolution and Mr El Paraiso could undermine their attempts to take back control of the 160-room London Road student accommodation block.

Thirty-two directors were appointed in June and September last year.

Thirteen are listed as UK-born men, and four as UK-born women with the title 'Miss'. There is no record of any of them having been born in the UK or in overseas British territories, despite it being a legal requirement that all British citizens' births be registered.

The majority of the 15 remaining directors are women titled 'Mrs' whose surnames at birth cannot be established, or men said to be of foreign nationality living in the UK.

But the BBC has been unable to find any addresses for any of them apart from Urban Evolution's office address, and none of them has any ever had any company directorships besides at Arndale House.

Arndale House leaseholder Richard Barker said authorities had been slow to act

Leaseholder Richard Barker, 61, from the Isle of Man, said: "This was clearly an attempt to prevent our meeting from having the necessary votes to remove him and his companies from our board. These directors are pure fiction, and appointed in a rush by [Mr El Paraiso] at the eleventh hour."

Despite being asked repeatedly, Mr El Paraiso has provided the BBC with no evidence that the directors are real people. He claimed they were leaseholders - something Mr Barker said was not true.

'Trapped'

Several people who own flats in a 560-room block called Opto Village in Luton, which Urban Evolution took over running in 2021, said that when they attempted to take back control of their own lettings they were told they had been transferred to another company called Skyline PM.

Mr El Paraiso told them he did not have any contact details for the firm. But at the time, the dormant company was based in a building owned by Mr Spencer. It was later registered to a non-existent address not far from Mr El Paraiso's home, and was then registered to a terraced house owned by another company he owned.

There are also questions about the identity of the director of the firm. Only two people called Paul Founds have been born in the UK in living memory, and the date of birth of the one registered with Skyline PM does not match that of either of them.

The address at which Skyline PM had been registered on Pinfold Lane in Hoylake, close to Royal Liverpool Golf Club, did not exist

A leaseholder told the BBC: "Mr El Paraiso told us he would try to get in touch with them on our behalf. He gave us the impression the firm had nothing to do with him.

"We don't know how much rent our tenants are actually paying, we have no evidence their deposits are properly protected, and we can't ask our tenants if works we have been charged for have actually been carried out."

The latest filings for the company now show it has one ordinary share held by Michael Shields, an employee of Urban Evolution.

Mr El Paraiso has not responded to the BBC's questions about Skyline PM.

Arndale House leaseholders said Mr El Paraiso's claims that the directors were also leaseholders was not true

In recent weeks, Isle of Man-based property company Schloss Roxburghe has removed Urban Evolution as building manager of its Queensland Place, Parliament Place and Wolstenholme Square blocks in Liverpool.

On Monday, a property tribunal published its judgment finding in favour of leaseholders in 400-bedroom Queensland Place.

The leaseholders argued that at least two directors of the company set up to exercise the "right to manage" on behalf of the owners of the flats did not exist.

Leaseholders in Queensland Place claimed in a court case that the directors of the company set up to manage their building were fake

Tribunal judges McLean and Holbrook said there had been "alarming allegations of dishonesty and fraud" levelled against the company – known as 15 - 17 Chatham Place RTM Ltd – which had been represented by Mr El Paraiso until days before the hearing in March.

They described the events of the hearing as "extraordinary" and said the failure of any of the company's witnesses to turn up "must call the reliability of all [the company's] witnesses into question".

They described the leaseholder group's testimony as "highly disturbing".

A sworn witness statement had been submitted in the name of one director whom leaseholders argued was fake, and whom Mr El Paraiso claimed to have last spoken to in December last year.

Neither that director, nor another whom the tribunal had said it wanted to appear in person, showed up for the court hearing.

Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson, standing outside Arndale House, said she believed the police should investigate

Liverpool MP Johnson told the BBC: "I'm very concerned… that there are some serious concerns and allegations about fraud and illegal practice in this market at this moment in time.

"I think it should be down to the police, but also Companies House, to undertake some investigation as well."

Companies House has recently brought in identity verification for company directors, which Arndale House leaseholder Mr Barker said was "too little, too late".