Highland Titles Nature Reserve

Highland Titles on their website on the "we are green" page, claim to have recently acquired a 500 acre plot of land using profits, and have set up the Highland Titles Nature Reserve. There is no location given, no map provided showing the location, no disclosure of how much it cost. I have asked organisations like Scottish National Heritage and Visit Scotland if they have ever heard of it, nobody I have contacted has.

The only clue as to the location is that it is near they place they called Glencoe Wood near Duror, and within the Scottish National Heritage Glen Etive and Glen Fyne Special Protection Area. The Glen Etive and Glen Fyne Special Protection Area is vast, covering huge areas of land between Glen Kinglas in the south to Appin in the north. In short, I can't find where it actually is!

An email enquiring as to the whereabouts of the nature reserve got this response.

"The Nature Reserve is sign posted once you are in Glencoe Wood, it is basically across the stream on the opposite side to our plots within the Conservation area."

I could be wrong as I have not enquired with the Scottish Land Registry to find the owner, but I don't think they own or lease the land indicated by the above directions.

What exactly is in the Highland Titles Nature Reserve? I don't know and they are not saying, little information is given on their website.
Here is what I suspect, I can't prove it but I can speculate. I think they did not buy any land, and have said so to try to account for the money they are supposed to be spending on conservation projects. I think that as of this date, the Highland Titles Nature Reserve does not exist on any new land they have purchased.

As always, if I'm wrong and you can point me to where it is, or prove they did actually buy the land, I'll be very happy to report it here.

Scotland On Sunday Highland Titles Comment

There was an article in the newspaper Scotland On Sunday (The Scotsman) a couple of weeks back titled "£30 Title to Lord it over Glencoe". One of the comments has caught my attention, I thought it quite amusing, to the point, and worth repeating here.

Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 11:06 AM

I might have agreed that it is just a bit of fun had Highland Titles not misdescribed what is on offer. Here's how I see it. If I saw a fully restored vintage Rolls Royce for sale and went to view it only to find it was actually a rusty old Ford Escort that had Rolls Royce badges stuck on it and the restoration work was a cardboard and body filler job and a bad re-spray, I'd fail to see the fun side of it. An explanation by the seller that it was just a bit of fun, would not really make me feel any better about wasting my time going to see it.

That's what Highland Titles have done, picked a vintage Rolls Royce location, Glencoe, and stuck Glencoe badges on their rusty old Ford Escort location by calling it Glencoe Wood. When I buy a car I want to view it personally before parting with cash, when folks in Australia, USA, or wherever buy a plot of land from Highland Titles they don't have an opportunity to view before buying, they take it on trust that the item is as described. Now people are finding out that what is on offer is not as described they are quite rightly getting upset about it, their trust had been betrayed. Highland Titles have misdescribed the product, have been caught out in the lie that the land they sell was actually in Glencoe, and people are complaning about the deception, simple, and in my opinion quite understandable.

Quite well put I thought!

Finding Your Highland Titles Glencoe Estates Plot

Highland Titles claim you can find your plot of land just by using an Ordnance Survey map. Like a lot of the information given by Higland Titles, this does not I think bear close scrutiny. Quite simply, Ordnance Survey maps, good as they are, are not accurate enough to be able to accurately locate a square foot of ground, this can be demonstrated using accuracy figures from Ordnance Survey themselves.

Scale and method of original survey		Expected Relative Accuracy at differing confidence levels
		68%	95%	99%
1:1250 scale	Maps surveyed at 1:1250 scale using instrumental methods to provide a framework of controlling detail.	±0.4m	±0.8m	±1.0m
1:2500 scale resurvey/ reformed	Maps surveyed at 1:2500 scale using instrumental methods to provide a framework of controlling detail.	±0.9m	±1.8m	±2.3m
1:2500 scale overhaul	Maps originally recompiled from pre-1946 County Series mapping.	±1.2m	±2.3m	±3.0m
1:10,000 scale *	Maps surveyed at 1:10000 scale using instrumental methods to provide a framework of controlling detail.	±3.5m	±6.7m	±8.8m

* Some generalisation of detail does occur for cartographic reasons on 1:10,000 mapping therefore some points of detail may appear to be less accurate than these standards.

The large scale 1:1250 scale map can only produce an accuracy of plus or minus 1 metre at 99% confidence level. The best 1:2500 scale map can only produce accuracy of plus or minus 2.3 metres at 99% confidence level. I would say it is not therefore possible to locate a 1 square foot plot using an Ordnance Survey map.

The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland seems to agree that the land cannot be found using an Ordnance Survey Map. “The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland cannot accept applications for registration in the land register for land not sufficiently described to allow it to be identified on the Ordnance Survey Map.”

How about GPS, surely that would locate a plot? Again when we examine the accuracy of commercially available GPS systems we find that the accuracy is not sufficient. Garmin, a very respected manufacturer of GPS receivers claim an accuracy of 15 metres on average. "Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average."(http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/). Not accurate enough to positively locate a square foot of ground then.

I have no idea how you could possibly locate your square foot of ground, if anybody does please get in touch and let me know, I'd be very interested to find out, and will correct this post if it is a valid method.

Highland Titles Not For Profit ... Really!

On the Lochaber Highland Estates, Highland Titles "we are green" page (highlandtitles.com/green.asp) on 15/01/2012 it said:

We are proud to be a not-for-profit organisation, and the company pays no dividends or annual bonuses to any investors/owners. Instead, any profit that the company makes is used for three main purposes; tree planting, land maintenance and improvement, and land acquisition.

If they are a not for profit organisation they are not now or ever have been registered as such either in the UK mainland or in the Channel Islands. Registration of not for profit companies is a requirement in both places.

It is quite normal for this size of company not to pay dividends or annual bonuses there is nothing unusual in that. That would not indicate however any restraint in payment of wages! If all profits were used for wages there would not be anything left over would there? Nor would it make the "pays no dividends or annual bonuses" statement untrue.

Do they give any indication of how much money has been used for the three main stated purposes? That would be no!

Highland Titles And Salmon Fishing

How about the Salmon fishing then that sounds good? Ummmm no, fact is that no mature salmon can leap the Monessie Falls, so the part of the river Peter Bevis, Highland Titles, Lochaber Highland Estates, Lochaber Country Club, offer for fishing is a bit thin on the Salmon, unless you visit the fishmonger before you go!

The only Salmon that are in that part of the river are the juvenile ones that were likely put there, they may be able to get out to sea but they won't ever be able to get back again, and anyway juvenile Salmon are protected by law in Scotland, catch one and you'll likely be breaking the law.

"Fishery board member Malcolm Spence QC said: "What Bevis is doing is completely wrong. I think it would be a criminal act to fish above the falls." "

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Laird+title+sell-off+'a+bit+fishy'.-a0160995732

Anyone with genuine knowledge of and interest in conservation in the area would know that, seems to have slipped Mr Bevis' mind ..... ooops!

Peter Bevis Highland Titles And The Scottish Woodland Alliance

Lets have a look at the Scottish Woodland Alliance, it can be found at lairdswood.org.uk. This is not a registered charity, not a registered not for profit company, no other woodland conservation organisations I have contacted in Scotland have ever heard of it, the Forestry Commision have never heard of it. It seems to me to be a company started and run by Mr Bevis.

How do we know that Mr Bevis is likely to be behind it? The domain name details are as follows.
Domain name:
        lairdswood.org.uk

    Registrant:
        Peptide Delivery Network Limit

    Registrant's address:
        St Annes House
Victoria Street St Annes
        Alderney
        Channel Islands
        GY9 3UG
        United Kingdom

We know that Mr Bevis used the company name Peptide Delivery Network because of the administrative contact of another domain lochabercountryclub.com as follows.

Registrant:
 Peptide Delivery Network Limit
 8 St Annes House
 Victoria Street
 St Annes
 Alderney, Channel Islands GY9 3UG
 GB

 Domain name: LOCHABERCOUNTRYCLUB.COM

 Administrative Contact:
    Bevis, Peter

And finally the contact address given on the website is yes you guessed already.

St Anne's House
Victoria Street
St Anne, Alderney
GY9 3UF

I think it would be fairly safe to say that Peter Bevis is the Scottish Woodland Alliance, it is likely to be another one of his companies.

I find it quite unlikely a company called  Peptide Delivery Network Limit in the Channel Islands would have much interest in the preservation of Scottish woodlands!

In the entry of Peter Bevis's profile on Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/peter-bevis/28/398/2a8 it says:

"Restoring Scottish woodland in association with the SWA."
Well would not be difficult if SWA stands for Scottish Woodland Alliance as it looks to me that Mr Bevis IS the SWA!  ()

What does the SWA do? Well one thing it does is invites visitors to the site to buy a a tiny plot of land via their locaberestates.com website or buy a tree dedication via their lochaberhighlandestates.com website.The inference is that profits from land and tree dedication sales will be used for conservation projects.

Ok so what conservation projects do they run? Who knows, there is no breakdown of any monies spent on anything. There are no accurate details of location of claimed tree planting, no accurate numbers of trees planted, no accurate details of type of trees planted. These I would think would be details they would be happy to publish, but they don't.

Laird Of Glencoe Trademark

I find it very odd that a company selling small plots of land supposedly in Glencoe so that supposedly buyers can then call themselves "Laird Of Glencoe" would trademark the phrase "Laird Of Glencoe" but it has happened!

Yes folks, Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Limited soon to be Highland Titles Limited have indeed trademarked Laird Of Glencoe on paper, cardboard and goods made from these materials.

So you can call yourself Laird Of Glencoe just don't write it on anything or they could sue you! There is no indication on their website that this is a trademark, nor any indication that buyers of their plots have any right to use it or any restrictions of use. Oh, that also proves quite conclusively that they themselves don't consider Laird to be a real title at all. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

Taken from the document at http://www.ipo.gov.uk/t-tmj/journals/6881/t-tmj-jnl-6881.pdf

Lochabar Highland Estates (CI) Limited is Changing Name

Just in, Lochabar Highland Estates (CI) Limited is changing its company name to Highland Titles Limited.

http://alderney.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=75956&p=0

NOTICE
Alderney Offical Gazette Volume 19 Number 5 (States ID: 0190005)
Date: 3rd February, 2012

Notice is hereby given that LOCHABER HIGHLAND ESTATES (C.I.) LIMITED whose Registered Office is situated at York House, Victoria Street, Alderney, Channel Islands, GY9 3TA will in accordance with Section 30 of The Companies (Alderney) Law, 1994 petition the Court of Alderney on Thursday 9th February 2012 at 2.30pm to approve a Special Resolution passed at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Shareholder of the said company on 24th January 2012 that the name of the Company be changed to HIGHLAND TITLES LIMITED and any person wishing to oppose the said Petition should inform the Clerk of the Court of Alderney forthwith.

Sally Mosley
Company Secretary
Lochaber Highland Estates (C.I.) Limited

I don't know what this means, but if I'd bought a plot of land from Lochabar Highland Estates (CI) Limited or any Peter Bevis company I'd be getting a bit worried right now.

Scottish Title Sellers And Conservation Part 1

One of the ways the appeal of the "buy land get a title" scam is increased is to claim to do conservation work, that way even if folks realise the "title" thing is a bit of a scam at least they will be contributing to something useful, right? Well not necessarily as we shall see.

Some of these land/title sellers claim to do conservation work, and some of them produce information to back this up. Most if not all of the conservation information produced by these people is sketchy at best with little accurate particulars of work done or money spent given. Lets have a look at just one bit of information given by Peter Bevis / Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Limited / Highand Titles (or whatever they are calling themselves this month), and see why it is misleading, but might well lead the reader to think they were doing something, when in fact they are doing little or nothing at all. So we'll have a look at what it said in a section of their Highland Titles website on 20/01/2012 and then examine it in detail.

Here is what the website said on 20/01/2012.

Glen Etive and Glen Fyne SPA for Golden Eagles

The Glen Etive and Glen Fyne SPA regularly supports a population of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) of European importance and with 19 active territories in 2003 it represents a significant percentage of Scotland's total population of these endangered birds.

Fund raising in 2011 has enabled us to realise the dream of acquiring a tract of land which will enable us to protect and conserve Scotland's iconic bird of prey, the Golden Eagle. This protected area, to be known as the Highland Titles Nature Reserve, is a large predominantly upland site, rising from sea level to over 1100m. It encompasses a diverse range of habitats including heather moorland, rough grassland, blanket bog, native woodland, montane heaths and exposed rock and scree. There are also freshwater lochans and streams.
Funding for this Nature Reserve has come directly from all our Lairds, but we must pay tribute here to the support that we have received in Q1 2011 from Australia.

And they showed this map of the area. (logo has been altered on this one)

Ok so what's wrong with that then I hear you say, that sounds really good, buying land, setting up Golden Eagle sanctuaries even a whole nature reserve, sounds like something getting done there ...... Errrmmmm don't think so!

Ok read it again and look at the map, does it give any specific particulars? does it say where the land is? does it show where the land is on the map? The answer is of course no, if you read it carefully all it actually says they have actually done is "acquire" a piece of land (they later claimed to have only leased it when put under pressure). Everything is in the future, nothing has yet been done. They don't even say or indicate where that land is located.

The map they provided isn't even their map, they stole it from Scottish National Heritage and re-branded it with their own logo!

The truth of the matter is this, Scottish Natural Heritage set up 6 Golden Eagle Special Protection Areas (SPAs) which took place from 13 January 2010 - 7 April 2010, 6 sites were classified by Scottish Ministers on 28 October 2010. http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/protected-areas/international-designations/spa/classification/ One of those SPA's is called Glen Etive and Glen Fyne.

Now compare the text from the website with the text in this SNH document see the similarity there! Then look at the map provided by Scottish National Heritage at http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B722753.pdf looks familiar to me.

The area this SPA covers is vast and there are many many landowners involved, all of whom are REQUIRED by law to protect the Golden Eagle.

You see the deception here, they make it look like they have set up some protection area for Golden Eagles, when in fact the Golden Eagle Special Protection Areas were set up by Scottish National Heritage and the Scottish Government. If Lochaber Highland Estates / Highland Titles / Peter Bevis owns any land within the boundary of the SPA the law already requires them to protect Golden Eagles. The same applies to all of the many other landowners within the SPA.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/10/28100843

Since I started writing this, Scottish National Heritage have complained about the theft alteration & use of their copyright map on the Highland Titles website without their permission. The map has now been removed from their website!

If Lochaber Highland Estates, Highland Titles would care to say where their Golden Eagle conservation site actually is, and what exactly they have done, I'd be very happy to pass that on.

My own wee Lochaber Highland Estate (without a Highland Title attached) falls within the boundary of the SPA, I'm protecting Golden Eagles too, and I'm not looking for any donations at all!

Not much sign of a conservation project there then as far as I can see!

If you are thinking about buying one of these titles and the promise of conservation is part of your decision to buy you should write the company concerned and ask for details of conservation work already done. Ask for specific details of work done, exact locations, if trees have been planted ask for exact numbers of specific species, ask how much has been spent on this work, ask what proportion of revenue is so spent, then satisfy yourself that the answers are correct. Any genuine conservation company should be able and happy to provide this information. Plans for the future is not work done.

Highland Titles Glencoe Estates Are Quite Willing To Lie

Lets be blunt about this, Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Limited / Highland Titles are quite willing to tell outright barefaced lies in order to make their profit, here is lie number one. Some direct quotations from their own marketing material and company representatives.

Lets just confine ourselves to one provable lie for now, there are plenty more for later!

Some quotations from Alex Flewitt from Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Limited, Highland Titles on Australian Television

"For as little as $50 you can purchase one square foot of land in Scotland up in our Highlands up in Glencoe"

"For as little as 50 Australian dollars for one square foot of land in Glencoe in Scotland" 

 "A few years ago we acquired a considerable amount of land in Glencoe"

And from the Highland Titles website on the FAQ page under  Is This Really Legal (29/01/2012).

"You are truly purchasing a Scottish Highland Estate in Glencoe, Scotland" 

I think it fair to say that by now everyone has the distinct idea that the land for sale is in the actual real Glencoe Scotland. That would be very wrong, Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Limited / Highland Titles at time of writing do not I think own any land at all in Glencoe, so I don't really see how they can legally be selling any land in Glencoe.

Are they selling land in Glencoe which does not belong to them then? Not that I know of, but it wouldn't entirely surprise me if they were!

What they have done is taken a bit of the land they do own and just called it Glencoe Wood! It is miles from the real Glencoe Scotland and has never been know locally as Glencoe anything. To say that the land they have for sale is in Glencoe is an outright lie designed to boost profits pure and simple.

Why would they do that?  Probably pure greed, Glencoe Scotland is well know throughout the world and makes for a much better sales pitch than say Glendour Forest (the commonly know name for this part) a place nobody outside of the immediate area anybody has ever heard of.

Lord of Glendour Forest just doesn't have much going for it nor would it persuade so many people to part with their cash.


Map showing locations of Glencoe and Highland Titles Glencoe Wood. As can be seen Glencoe Wood is nowhere near the actual Glencoe!!

As it stands at 29/01/2012, if you thought you had ever bought a piece of land from  Lochaber Highland Estates (CI) Limited or Highland Titles (the same company) in Glencoe Scotland, you did not, it was a lie. That fact alone makes this a scam.

Ask yourself this, do you really want to buy anything from liars? Would you trust anything else that Highland Titles say? Personally when I find out somebody is lying, I am very suspicious about anything else they say.

What can you do if you thought you bought a piece of land in Glencoe and have now found out you did not? First thing to do is ask for your money back. Second thing to do is inform Trading Standards in Scotland, yes you can do this even if you live abroad, and they will be delighted to hear from you. I'm not sure what they can realistically do about it, but it won't do any harm to let them know you have been cheated.

The Highland CouncilTransport, Environmental & Community Services
Trading Standards Unit
38 Harbour Road
Inverness
IV1 1UF
Tel: 01463 228700
Fax: 01463 223723
Email: trading.standards@highland.gov.uk
Website: http://www.highland.gov.uk/businessinformation/tradingstandards