PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
♦
This is just a quickie that I want to get out before too much damage is done. This report from North Wales Live tells us that a property hot-shot has bought the Shire Hall in Llangefni. Nice little town, Llangefni, the wife enjoys a trip there. We always pop up to the Kyffin Williams gallery for a few hours. But enough of me and the missus.
You’ll note that the report I’ve linked to is written by Owen Hughes, the NWL business correspondent, who I’ve mentioned before. He it was who gave Paul and Rowena Williams of Plas Glynllifon write-up after uncritical write-up, so I thought I’d fire a warning shot across his bows before he steams ahead with this latest Titanic.
The man in question, the ‘property developer’, is Tristan Haynes or, to give him his full name, Tristan Scott Haynes. Who, in the report, is said to be: “Based in Bedfordshire, the managing director of Chief Properties – who also runs a successful haulage firm – had never been to Anglesey before identifying Shire Hall as a possible location.”
So let’s look at Chief Properties Ltd. A company formed in August 2018, which means there are no accounts filed, nothing. This company was almost certainly formed specifically to buy Llangefni’s Shire Hall, which went for sale a couple of months earlier. The company seems to own no other property, and it has no record of contracts completed, work done, or anything else.
But the Companies House entry can tell us that Haynes has taken out two loans with Together Commercial Finance Ltd to buy the Shire Hall, and if that lender sounds familiar then it’s probably because it’s where Paul and Rowena Williams went for loans when the big banks started turning them down.
Then there’s the “successful haulage firm” that Haynes is said to run. Would this be Falcon Transportation Ltd, from which he resigned in February 2018 and to which he made a comeback in February 2019?
There are of course many different ways of gauging success, but I don’t think Eddie Stobart need lose any sleep over a company with net assets of £21,802.
Elsewhere in his encomium Owen Hughes tells us, “Tristan (they’re on first name terms!), who grew up in South Africa, the US and the Middle East before travelling the world as an Olympic-level windsurfer, spotted the Glanhwfa Road site when searching for a refurbishment project.”
Though it might be understandable why we didn’t read about Bullet Strategies Ltd, another Haynes company, seeing as he never got around to telling Companies House what kind of business it was. Formed January 2013, dissolved September 2014 with nothing filed.
We’ve read that Haynes was an ‘Olympic-level windsurfer’, so perhaps that’s why he was in Malta, where he got involved in a road rage incident that saw him being sent down in January 2010 for four years. Then there was the strange case of his ‘escape’.
I don’t know about you, boys and girls, but I’m beginning to have that old familiar feeling about Tristan. I mean, what do we know about him? The short answer is – nothing.
Except that he has a vague and perhaps unverifiable background. He’s a kung-fu expert who was convicted of beating up a couple of old men on Malta. His property company is new and reliant on borrowed money. He seems to have no experience relevant to the project he talks about for the Shire Hall. His haulage firm – despite what Owen Hughes tells us – is hardly a glittering success. And then there’s Bullet Strategies Ltd, what the hell was that about?
Here’s Jac’s advice. To the good people of Llangefni – keep an eye on your Shire Hall.
To the county council – according to the Land Registry the sale may not have gone through yet – it certainly hasn’t been registered – so there may still be time to call it off. I know you’re desperate to offload this building, but this deal is almost guaranteed to turn out badly – for you!
To the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ – don’t give this guy a penny of our money!
To Owen Hughes and the rest of the ‘Welsh media’ – for God’s sake do a few simple checks before going into raptures about people you know nothing about. You could save us all a lot of heartache and money, and yourselves embarrassment.
The bigger question must be why Wales keeps attracting these people. The short answer is that a poor country with plenty of surplus property going for a song will always attract chancers and worse.
The only remedy is independence and the economic uplift it will provide, plus the restrictions that can be placed on foreign ownership. But in the meantime, as a colony, we must expect more like Paul Williams, and Myles Cunliffe, and Gavin Woodhouse, and Tristan Haynes, and . . .
♦ end ♦
and now it’s on fire…. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6p1w6g97v0o
Insured much?
No idea.
Ha, sorry Jac, it was a rhetorical question/ponder.
Planning Application FPL/2023/181 looks interesting….
“I think you can see we are now in a very difficult position. The
financial circumstances have changed so much since we started
the project, continuing may not be possible if the application is
rejected.
I hope this clearly summarises the situation as I see it. It has
been a very long time and an ever-changing process.
Yours sincerely
Tristan Haynes”
Such a shame the building burned down last night! Must be all this hot, dry weather we’ve been having
That was my first thought!
North Wales Chronicle journo Arron Evans has just pasted and copied the Daily Post article on Shire Hall in todays issue ..
The thing about the ‘pact’ between the British Nationalists (LibDems) and the fake Welsh Nationalists (Plaid Cymru) is that it has not worked. We see that Gwald is standing in all parts of Wales abandoned by Plaid Cymru.
Maldwyn, Brycheiniog, Bro Morgannwg a Chaerdydd Canolog.
Vote ❎ Ein Gwlad
We also see that in some constituencies where London ordered LibDems in Wales not to stand candidates are standing anyway. Pontypridd is an example. Traditionally, the LibDems have always respected devolution for cause of federalism, but in this case a ‘stitch up’ was made in Westminster effectively overriding the wishes of their party in Wales.
https://twitter.com/CllrMikePowell
There is no more LibDems in RCT, and their only councillor, the cowboy plumber, is standing as the BritNat candidate.
i hope that plaid cymru reads this, and takes note of one of the most inteligent and thoughtfull sumecions i have read for along time .if people had resevations, of needing a new party for welsh determination this should go a long way to despel their worry’s..
This morning I am particularly angry, mostly because of all the empty fudge being trotted out by assorted politicians and journos who are fed crap for instant repetition. For instance,the more I see of talking heads spouting the latest line of bollocks as prepared by the LibDems the more I despair at Adam Price, henceforth to be known as Adam Cheapdeal, for ever thinking of doing a deal with those flipfloppers in Yellow. The Brexit/EU “debate” has so addled the brains of so many politicians in Wales that the prospect of ever getting out from under the yoke of Westminster/City of London fades into the distance.
We are being consigned to a future of regular invasions by the modern version of robber barons, the likes of Woodhouse, the Williamses, Haynes and more. We won’t be allowed to repel these invasions using the most appropriate of methods as the colonial power won’t allow violence against such people but permits it against our land, culture, values and language. The threat of assimilation and loss of everything that identifies us intensifies with each passing week.
Miles off topic, but very current, is the collective disgust at the shady conduct of ex Sec of State Alun Cairns. Given that so much information is already known as a matter of record the volume of criticism is justified. However what is less easy to justify is the fact that much of the noise about Cairns comes from the Labour Party in Wales, a party that can’t bring itself to confront the truth about the dismissal and death of Carl Sargeant at it might reveal that it too favours deceit above transparency when such episodes need to be “managed”.
Very good point indeed. Cairns turned a blind eye to a perversion of the course of justice. The entire Welsh ‘Labour’ Party continues actively to suppress the truth about a death.
And Plaid Cymru seemingly content to help bury the truth too. Could it be that its former leader was just too close to the complainants who led to Sargeant being sacked?
https://walesnewsonline.com/labour-and-plaid-cymru-block-assembly-vote-on-full-release-of-carl-sargeant-leak-inquiry/
Almost certainly.
A casual observer will also notice that the ‘loans’ are secured on the land assets rather than the buildings. This suggests that secured value is not in ‘renovation’ but banking of land, payoff being the possibility of future new property development. Henry Neville Moser is the ultimate owner of Together Commercial Finance Ltd who financed the deal.
He has a history.
https://news.sky.com/story/mortgage-tycoon-eyes-800m-sale-windfall-10381987
and
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/henry-moser.pdf
It does appear that the financial packages arranged for Shire Hall in Llangefni as well as the previous endeavour at Glynllifon is at the more peripheral end of the mortgage market. Buildings crumble, enterprises carry risk, but the land is a permanent fixture.
Together Commercial Finance is a pay-day loan company for businesses. If you borrow from Together it says quite a bit about your credit rating.
When Paul and Rowena Williams started out in 2015 they were getting mortgages or loans from NatWest, and they now owe over £6m which NatWest is very unlikely to see. Which is why, for their more recent ventures in north Gwynedd, they’ve had to rely on Together Commercial Finance Ltd.
Unlike an individual who has a “pay-day”, commercial loans are different. Return occurs when the asset is sold. In the case of land speculation, the value paid per acre being the principle sum, plus the compounded interest that has accumulated. Shire Hall and Glynllifon are not going concerns, just property speculation.
This building looks like it should be listed. If it hasn’t been, the community council have the remit (if not the inclination) to fix that. Any restrictions imposed on this undesirable through listing will certainly be of benefit to Llangefni.
It is Grade II listed.
You can add Richard Marcel Sidi From Cumbria to your list. Aka Director of many schemes one including Land and Lakes (Anglesey). You know the ‘World Class Leisure Village’ at Penrhos Nature Park/Reserve Holyhead. That was supposedly opening May 2015 employing 15,000 people. …Another bunch of proverbial Chancers!
I take back that figure slip of the finger! 1,500 jobs!
Even that figure looks a gross and deliberate exaggeration.
Everything that comes out of the Land & Lakes (Anglesey) camp is a gross and deliberate exaggeration. They have been silent for 11 months which in itself is worrying.
Well done yet again, Jac, in raising legitimate concerns about Mr Tristan Haynes and his big plans for Shire Hall. Every time you feature one of these characters I shake my head in disbelief at those so-called reporters who write puff pieces for them, and our bureaucrats and politicians who seemingly can’t wait to hand them our cash in the way of generous grants. Unbelievable.
But what a fascinating history this latest ex-con has, doesn’t he? Seems a bit of a Walter Mitty character to me. Having read your piece and the cringeworthy statements attributed to Haynes in the report you linked us to from North Wales Live – any sensible person would run a mile from dealing with the guy. Unfortunately, common sense and our politicians rarely run in tandem.
I am afraid it won’t be the last we’ll be hearing about him.
In fairness, it was a regular source who drew my attention to Mr Haynes and Shire Hall. Reminding us that there are a few people who know it’s worth bringing a story like this to me, but there are many, many more who run across crooks and shysters but have nowhere to go, because there’s no point in them contacting politicians or media.
Sadly this country boasts no equivalent of the ‘Sunday World’ or the ‘Sunday Business Post’.
Vote ❎ Ein Gwlad 2021
It comes to something when I find myself saying what I’d give for some indigenous property crooks!
Do you think history will name the likes of these as the Anglo-Welsh, as a nod to the Anglo-Irish colonising landowner class?