I lost £150,000 of my life savings after investing in a holiday park scheme – I’m still paying for it and the firm is now demanding another £6,600 in ground rent
A gas fitter has told of the ‘unbelievably stressful’ experience of losing £150,000 in life savings after investing in a holiday park scheme.
Christopher Lightfoot, from Lincoln, signed up with a company called Liv Lodges – which trades as LL Lincoln LTD – who he said painted a rosy picture of a new potential income stream.
Mr Lightfoot, 50, explained the company guaranteed a rental return of eight per cent (net) per annum and an ‘exit plan’ that would see him get his money back and more.
After wooing them with a visit to the park, he and his wife – who asked not to be named – decided to buy a holiday home for £149,990 in April 2021.
At first the investment lived up to its promise and they saw a monthly income of £1,000 profit come in.
But suddenly in 2024 the money stopped arriving and Mr Lightfoot said he was fobbed off with excuses about where it was.
The 50-year-old was told the management of his lodge had been transferred to a new company called 5 Star Park Developments Limited.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Lightfoot said: ‘We thought it’d be temporary and that they were going through a rough patch. We were stuck in a situation of wondering what was going on.’
Christopher Lightfoot (pictured), from Lincoln, signed up with a company called Liv Lodges – which trades as LL Lincoln LTD – who he said painted a rosy picture of a new potential income stream
The lodge purchased by Chris Lightfoot. It was sold after Mr Lightfoot was taken through ‘impressive looking spreadsheets showing detailed profit forecasts’
Inside the lodge: Suddenly in 2024 the money stopped arriving and Mr Lightfoot said he was fobbed off with excuses about where it was
He was told he had to sign up to a much more stringent contract, which meant the rental income was dwarfed by the management costs.
Despite the contract seeming heavily weighted in favour of 5 Stars, Mr Lightfoot said he was assured site fees were covered under the management fee.
He also said he was told that in a phone call that if the rent from 5 Stars was ‘not enough’ LL Lincoln Ltd would pay the difference. Faced with the prospect of losing his investment entirely, he signed the contract on January 22 2025.
But disaster struck on April 7 2025 when LL Lincoln Ltd was dissolved before the date the attractive ‘exit plan’ could be activated, meaning his contract with 5 Stars was now permanent.
Debt started mounting and he currently owes the company some £6,600 in ground rent, an amount which is still thought to be increasing.
In the first quarter he received £1,394 of the £8,708 lodge income which then came to -£256 following the subtraction of rent and site fees.
He claims he is now unable to sell the lodge: ‘It can’t be moved from the site, and is an unattractive proposition for any potential buyer. We have basically lost the full £150,000. We are not making money from rental and instead have these ongoing costs.’
Park pub and restaurant, The White Horse. With building timber during the renovation – several brand new lodges were being installed in the area
Mr Lightfood added: ‘It is not an investment anymore – who would buy a lodge losing money?
‘All I know is the facts. They sold us something on a guaranteed basis but before we could activate the sellback the company has gone bust.
‘This is an incredibly stressful situation we’re going through here – this is our life savings.
‘Since the payment stopped it’s affected us unbelievably. We had a plan and that plan has completely come to an end.’
Mr Lightfoot explained he had come across ‘several other groups in the same situation’.
He said he is currently taking legal action against the companies with the help of the European Consumer Claims (ECC).
Greg Wilson, co-director of the ECC, explained the company had received in excess of 10,000 enquiries on issues related to holiday park owners.
He said: ‘Pretty much all the enquiries have had similar issues. These holiday park lodges seem to have developed into some form of quick and fast money making machines.
‘It’s quite dreadful how some of the larger brands in particular don’t consider how much damage it can do to individuals.’
LL Lincoln Ltd and 5 Star Park Developments Limited have been contacted for comment.
Sophisticated conman dupes 14 close family friends to shell out £600,000 on fraudulent sports betting scheme and then lavishes the money on himself
A ‘sophisticated’ conman duped family friends into shelling out £600,000 on a sports betting ‘Ponzi scheme’ – before lavishing their money on himself.
Richard Evans, 41, was jailed for a seven-year scam which saw him convince 14 people they would make huge returns on an elaborate ‘spread betting’ operation.
The victims left out of pocket when the venture went ‘catastrophically wrong’ included a teacher who lost an inheritance she had been left by her father at the age of 11.
Most of the investors were ‘lifelong friends’ of Evans’s parents and struggled to believe someone they had known for years could defraud them, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.
Evans, a father-of-two, has now been jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to nine counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.
Passing sentencing, Recorder Jaron Crooknorth said Evans should be ‘ashamed’ of his actions and the impact on the families he defrauded.
He said: ‘Although money was used to place bets it could not be called investing, there were no true profits, you made annual statements to induce more money.
‘I do not accept there was little or no planning, this was sophisticated.
‘This took place over a significant period, your actions were dishonest even if it did not start that way.’
Richard Evans, 41, was jailed for a seven-year scam which saw him convince 14 people they would make huge returns on an elaborate ‘spread betting’ operation
Most of the investors were ‘lifelong friends’ of Evans’s parents and struggled to believe someone they had known for years could defraud them
Evans told his victims they could make money through a ‘sophisticated’ scheme focused on spread betting, where gamblers bet on if the outcome of a match will be higher or a lower than a potential range of likely scores.
The court heard that the investors signed a contract which promised a 15 per cent return on their investment guaranteed by Evans’ wealthy business partner.
They were told their money would be invested through a company called Sports Trust, which did not exist.
But the plan – which began in 2014 – was ‘inevitably’ going to fail and he was left without the money to repay investors, prosecutors said.
He ‘frittered away’ the money, which went straight into his bank account, on bars and restaurants as well as using it to pay his mortgage.
In one family he targeted, both parents and their two adult children invested in the scheme and lost £225,050 between them.
One victim, Alison Wem, said she felt she had ‘failed as a mother’ by recommending the investment option to the rest of her family.
In total, 14 people invested £612,807 which has yet to be repaid, the court heard.
Evans was said to have made £106,000 in bets with an index company, a gambling firm specialising in spread betting, but was paid out just £52,987 – a loss of almost £53,000.
He did make a meagre profit of £300 through Paddy Power, far lower than the amount invested.
Richard Evans, pictured outside court with his wife Alexandra, was told he should be ashamed of his actions by a judge
Evans was eventually reported to police in 2021 – seven years after his fraudulent scheme began – when his victims finally became suspicious
Evans managed to keep the scheme afloat by making false annual statements to encourage people to keep their money invested and, when that failed, stalling or making excuses about repayments.
Eventually, his victims grew suspicious and reported Evans to the police in late 2021.
The court was told that the fraud has ‘fractured’ families, with some standing by Evans. One victim of the scheme even provided a character reference for the father of two.
Prosecutor Tim Moores said: ‘The fallout that has occurred, even between friends and family, between those who realised they were duped and those who still now refuse to believe Evans defrauded them was relevant to the fact that most people knew him, most of the investors were close family friends of his parents and their adult children.’
He added: ‘It is not a case where there are expenditures on large capital items, it is just a regular pattern of the defendant using the sums as his own, a lot of it has been frittered away on restaurants and bars.’
James Williams, defending, claimed in mitigation that Evans’ scheme had been a ‘genuine’ attempt to enrich himself and his investors.
He said: ‘They went into this with their eyes wide open…this was an attempt by Evans to make money, largely for himself and for the investors, that went catastrophically wrong.’
