The dream of owning property in The Caribbean plus gaining a large financial gain on your investment. For many of us it is the dream. And Essex businessman David Ames played on this as he lured investors with the promise of a Caribbean dream, but, the reality was a fraud he perpetrated which left thousands with the nightmare of losing life-savings and pensions.

Through glossy brochures, slick marketing events and the pulling power of so-called celebrities, he persuaded people to invest in off-plan holiday cabanas and apartments across the Caribbean and in Brazil. They lost everything whilst he and his family lived a life of luxury.

This week, I look at the scandal of Harlequin Properties.

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Life was pretty good for Paul Brady. He had just got engaged to Emma and the big day was set for the following spring.

Paul was a foreman responsible for security at a number of local site and one sunny Saturday morning he met up with a joiner, David Collier, and headed to a local property to make some repairs after the house suffered some vandalism the evening before. By 2.10pm, all was done and the two men were driving away when the peace of the day was shattered and their path was blocked when a people carrier blocked their way along the road and another vehicle came up behind their cars – a classic pincer movement. Both men knew straight away it was an ambush and they were in trouble. These assailants weren’t amateurs – they were armed with metal bars and baseball bats and one had a shotgun. All were wearing black, tight-fitting ski masks and identical black hooded tops and black trousers. They weren’t messing about.

David managed to escape by jumping in a nearby river but Paul wasn't so lucky and suffered a dreadful beating. He was then taken away by the gang. Just who had kidnapped Paul Brady? And why?

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Sources

https://www.uktruecrime.com/2024/10/14/the-ambush/

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Vikki Thompson lived in a village near Oxford with her husband Jonathan, two young children and the family dog, Daisy. At about 4pm one Saturday afternoon, Vikki took Daisy for her usual afternoon walk in the pretty countryside close to where she lived. Half an hour later, Daisy returned home with no sign of Vikki which was most unusual. Jonathan knew something was wrong and headed out to look for his wife where he was joined by others in the village. At just before 7.15pm Vikki was finally found by the railway embankment, but she had been attacked, suffering terrible injuries and despite an air ambulance taking her to hospital in Oxford, just six days later Vikki had died of her injuries.

In this episode of the UK true Crime podcast I ask just who killed Vicki - and why?

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Sources

https://www.uktruecrime.com/2024/10/07/there-is-no-justice-in-death/

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