Highland Titles Mob More Misleading Adverts Say Advertising Standards

Some may have missed this, we didn't! Amongst the rulings published on 20th January by the Advertising Standards Authority was one upheld against Tulloch Farm Enterprises Ltd t/a Lochaber Highland Estates, seen on the ASA website HERE

So who are Tulloch Farm Enterprises Ltd? Yes that's right, those familiar purveyors of the convincing con, part of the Highland Titles mob, Peter Bevis and his wife Helen McGregor, the founders of Highland Titles. The website complained about was www.lochaberhighlandestates.com, although apparently operated by Tulloch Farm Enterprises Ltd, the customer support address given on the website is, Highland Titles, York House, 52, Victoria Street, Alderney.

So what have the Bevis & McGregor dastardly duo been up to now? Well, they've been telling their customers that when they paid for a souvenir plot of land from them, they gained "full rights of ownership" (of the land). Something that they have been entirely aware for a very long time, is simply not true, and their unwitting customers therefore didn't get what they paid for.

We're not going into the Tulloch Farm reply, it seems they've found a lawyer and a barrister to give opinion that buyers get "beneficial ownership" (whatever that actually is), here. Interesting that non of the legal experts wheeled out by the Highland Titles mob, ever seem to point out exactly where in Scots law this mysterious concept of beneficial ownership is actually described, or what rights are gained if it even exists.

We will however point you to others, qualified lawyers, who are much more authoritative on matters of Scottish land law than we are, for their views on the matter. These views tend to differ markedly from the opinions of the legal experts presumably paid for by the Highland Titles mob.

Malcolm Combe, lecturer in law at The University of Aberdeen School Of Law, and an advisor to the Land Reform Review Group, gives his opinion on souvenir plot sales and Highland Titles in general, in this piece titled Highland Titles Scam.

Malcolm Combe again, with an article on ownership of souvenir plots in Scotland HERE

Giles Peaker a partner at Anthony Gold solicitors, gives his opinion of the Highland Titles mob claim that plot buyers end up owning any land HERE

Halliday Campbell, Scottish solicitors give their opinion of Scottish souvenir plot ownership HERE

We may hope that Bevis and McGregor might contact all the customers duped by their website during the time this claim appeared, and offer a full refund as the product has clearly been seriously incorrectly described. Unfortunately, experience tells us, this is extremely unlikely. 

Highland Titles, Wildcat Haven Is NOT a Charity, Yet You Claim It Is

Back in June 2015 (we pointed it out last October) on Facebook, we found Highland Titles claiming that Wildcat Haven, an organisation which they support, is a charity. " The Wildcat Haven as one of the key charities we support financially". Archived HERE.

Now again in January this year we find them doing it again "A good summary for our newer followers on why this charity ...". Archived HERE

Andy Wightman shares his thoughts on Wildcat Haven on his blog HERE

Wildcat Haven is not a charity. The full name of the company is, Wildcat Haven Community Interest Company, under the category Private Limited Company with Share Capital, with a registered address in Cornwall England. Company details HERE

Highland Titles surely must be aware that Wildcat Haven is not a charity. Firstly, they claim to have been supporting them for years, and you'd think they'd have found that out by now. Secondly, Douglas Wilson, a director of Highland Titles, is also a director of the WH commercial arm called Wildcat Haven Enterprises CIC, as seen HERE

Douglas Wilson was also by his own admission, involved in the rip-off website applyehic.org, a website supplying paid for "form checking" services for otherwise free European Health Insurance Cards. It was reported in the Guardian newspaper that "This week Google removed one of the worst offenders from its ads – Applyehic.org – after we pointed out it appeared to be breaking the rules"

Screen Capture From This Archive

There is an excellent blog detailing the involvement of the Highland Titles mob in the applyehic.org scam HERE

The fact that Highland Titles are claiming that Wildcat Haven is a charity when it is not, was mentioned to Wildcat Haven on twitter on 7th Jan by user Sir Lord Glencoe KBE.

To date there has been no reply from Wildcat Haven, and the Highland Titles Facebook post remains unchanged. Archived today.

So here we have two questionable organisations, Highland Titles and Wildcat Haven, lending credibility and support to one another, with a shared involvement of director Douglas Wilson, where one is claiming the other is a charity when that is not true. Where I came from, some certainly might consider that as deception.

Instead of supporting the above decidedly shady lot, if you are considering lending support for Scottish Wildcats, why not consider supporting Scottish Wildcat Action, which is supported by the Scottish Government.and other official bodies It surely must be a better bet.

http://www.scottishwildcataction.org

Earl Of Bradford Fake Restaurant Reviews Smear Campaign, And Yes, Highland Titles

A recent story in the Daily Telegraph reveals that restaurants belonging to the Earl Of Bradford have for many years been suffering from a smear campaign of fake reviews aimed at destroying his business. And .also that "The Earl believes the campaign is orchestrated by the owner of one of the fake title companies he exposed".

So what has this got to do with Highland Titles you ask? Well, Bradford blamed Peter Bevis of Highland Titles for some attacks quite some time ago, in writing, on his own website. Having closely reviewed the evidence, we would say, with good reason.

To quote from Bradford's faketitles.com website:

"Peter Bevis, the man behind Highland Titles, has responded to my explanation of why Highland Titles is a scam, by maliciously attacking my two restaurants on the Internet on online review sites, even going so far as to create a fake Daily Telegraph website review of Porters English Restaurant"

Bradford further informs there was an investigation, but the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute. He also claims that Peter Bevis's wife (Helen McGregor) did at one time work for the Crown Prosecution Service.

What we do know for sure, is that Highland Titles have in the past used fake newspaper articles to bolster their image and misquote critics, a technique used in these attacks, This was the subject of an Advertising Standards Authority complaint, and reported in Private Eye magazine issue number 1339 page 11.

We also know that Highland Titles have a history of cyber bullying critics. They attacked Robin Cunninghame Graham, John Duncan, and Stephen Mosley (who complained about HT to the ASA), on the "trolls" page of their website at lairdreviews,com. They used fake identities Susan Friend and John Dixon of Simply Reviews as the supposed operators of that website. The website is not now live.

The Highland Titles mob are not the nice cuddly people they'd have you believe, they have harassed and bullied people who have expressed perfectly legitimate concerns about their operation. What respectable company would stoop to that level?

A far as we are aware, and we are very sure about this, no legal action has to date been taken against Bradford for his allegation.

Food for thought we'd say.

Oh, others have also suffered some quite horrendous cyber bullying attacks after expressing concern about "fake titles" vendors. That may well be the subject of a future post.

Highland Titles Whining About The Independent Press Standards Organisation

Today we take a look at Highland Titles whining that an apology from the Press & Journal wasn’t prominent enough, while cranking out wholly fake newspaper stories to harass their critics.

Well here's a thing... Douglas Wilson, of Highland Titles and applyehic fame, is one of the signatories to a letter in the Guardian to Sir Alan Moses complaining about their treatment at the hands of IPSO.

Wilson's grievance is described as ‘Complained about an obviously inaccurate article in a Scottish newspaper. Upheld, but the correction was tiny compared to the damaging article.

This refers to a story in the Press & Journal that reported criticism of Highland Titles by the operator of the 'Clan Donald Worldwide' Facebook page as coming from Clan Donald. The P&J published an apology but Highland Titles felt it wasn't prominent enough. Erroneous though the attribution was, the article could hardly have been said to misrepresent clan sentiment – the Convenor of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, Sir Malcolm McGregor, wrote the following earlier this year

"The lawyers have clarified that purchasing a souvenir plot of land in Scotland does not mean the purchaser owns the plot. It is still owned, in this case, by Highland Titles. 

The lawyers have also confirmed that purchasers of souvenir plots are emphatically not landowners. 

Separately, though connected, the titles aspect of this saga also lacks authenticity. 

First, only the Lyon Court can confer genuine titles in Scotland. No one else, and certainly not Highland Titles. 

Second, there can only be one laird or title per geographical location. Highland Titles uses Glencoe. The genuine laird, or chieftain, MacIain of Glencoe (Clan Donald), was murdered on this day in 1692, the day of the infamous massacre. The title belongs to him and his descendants, and no one else. To suggest, as Highland Titles does, that there can be thousands of lairds or Lords of Glencoe is false. 

Third, the actual place from which the title ‘of Glencoe’ is taken is in fact woodland at Duror, 10 miles away and has nothing to do with Glencoe geographically. 

Fourth, the title of ‘laird’ or indeed Lord/Lady is not, and never has been, associated with a souvenir plot of land. Neither Lyon Court nor anyone else would recognise such a claim in respect of souvenir plots. Lyon has said as much in correspondence. 

Highland Titles tend to work overseas where there is less knowledge of these matters. They rarely, if ever, operate in Scotland where they would be laughed out of court. Which is exactly what has happened. 

Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor
Convenor
Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs"

Additionally, the notion expressed in the P&J article quotations that taking ‘Glencoe’ – known to history for the massacre of 1692 – as a title might be seen as insensitive is well-established. From the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for Lord Strathcona, who built Glencoe House:

"When news leaked out that he had chosen the title Lord Glencoe, after a glen where Scottish chieftains had been slaughtered in 1692, a glen he had only recently acquired, colleagues prevailed on him to reconsider. He created the name Strathcona, a Gaelic variant on Glencoe."

Having got the P&J article taken down and an apology printed, an organisation so concerned with setting the record straight will no doubt be keen to apologise to the Earl of Bradford over the fake Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard stories reporting an outbreak of food poisoning at his restaurant, for which the Earl believes Highland Titles was responsible (with very good reason, we would say, having closely reviewed the evidence. It further goes without saying that if the Earl’s allegations were false, Highland Titles would certainly have taken legal action).

Highland Titles also owes an apology to Rob Gibson MSP, the Scottish Parliament's Rural Affairs spokesman, having fabricated a bunch of quotes from him in support of square-foot lairdship schemes for a fake Daily Record article they created. The quotes inverted Gibson's actual statements. The ASA and Private Eye exposed Highland Titles' fake newspaper story server, newsfeed.ws, nearly 3 years ago now (although not specifically reporting the Daily Record/Rob Gibson fake – both the Record and Rob Gibson are, however, aware), so the apology is a little overdue.

The victims of Highland Titles’ dirty tricks and their applyehic operation must be staggered at the hypocrisy of them now crying foul. And over what – an unintended confusion (the P&J withdrew the article as soon as it was pointed out) for which Highland Titles received a printed apology. This from a company that cranks out wholly fake Daily Telegraph/Evening Standard/Daily Record stories to harass and bully their critics.

And the less said about Wilson's second IPSO complaint, this time against the Daily Record, the better. There are many points of interest in the complaint and we examine it in more detail in another post. Among the supposed inaccuracies which Douglas Wilson of Highland Titles complained of, to pick one example: ‘The complainant [Wilson] said that the CEO of the company, Dr Peter Bevis, does not live in Spean Bridge, as reported, but in Alderney. He had not lived in the Highlands since 2006.’

We have no doubt that for tax purposes Dr Bevis is domiciled in Alderney, but when a recent puff piece for Dr Bevis's bellringing centre begins, "A LOCHABER couple [Bevis and his wife] will be ringing in the New Year in style with the help of the 20 bells in the bell towers at their home [the bell towers are in their home near Spean Bridge, where Wilson says Bevis does not live and has not lived since 2006]." the accusation of inaccuracy Wilson levelled at the Record stretches credulity more than a little.

The Record offered an apology for this ;error'.

Highland Titles, on the other hand, remain wholly unapologetic about their own behaviour.