A Scottish conman accused of leaving customers £100,000 out of pocket has claimed he will personally repay everyone, after his latest scam was exposed by the Daily Record.
Matthew Farr, 37, who was jailed in Edinburgh for a solar panel scheme in which he used the deposits of people in Scotland for gambling and luxury living, is at the centre of new rip-off claims at his car repair firm based in England.
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Although the email address he has given to those who want their money back doesn’t appear to exist.
Far who modelled himself on Jordan Belfort, the fraudster in hit film The Wolf Of Wall Street, vowed to “personally repay all customers and investors” of Masco Detailing Ltd.
A lengthy statement on the company website said: “The sum total of personal loss and debt I have now far surpasses the sum total of investors and customers.
"Living the life of luxury off of other people’s money couldn’t be further from the truth and I estimate that the number of customers left out of pocket equates to less than 0.1 per cent of all customers serviced by Masco.
“Despite this, I do not wish to see anyone out of pocket due to Masco so my intention is to personally repay all customers and investors who lost money due to the company going out of business from my future earnings.”
But victims of the conman said their emails had been returned to the sender. The Mail revealed last week how Farr, who also uses the name Matthew Scott, has been ordered to spend a week in jail after failing to appear in court.
That came after a customer launched a civil action against him over a payment of £3450 to Masco Detailing for work
on his car in August 2021 which was allegedly never carried out or refunded.
He was ordered to pay the man £4078.28 in March last year. Farr did not pay and failed to appear at Nuneaton County Court in Warwickshire about the debt. He was found in contempt of court in December and a warrant was issued.
After being made aware of Farr’s new online promise, the victim contacted the firm via the email address provided in order to request a refund. But it bounced back saying the host or domain name was “not found”.
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The 44-year-old victim said: “I’m not surprised. It’s a conman conning people all over again.”
A former F1 mechanic also contacted the email address to inquire about a refund on the £10,000 he invested and lost but received a bounce-back email. Masco Detailing was formed in July 2020 with Farr, under the name Scott, as sole director.
He persuaded scores of people to invest in the firm with the promise of lucrative returns but they claim he vanished after taking their cash.
Farr, who now lives in Leamington Spa, is also accused by customers of taking money upfront for jobs not done. The Daily Record spoke to one man who invested more than £75,000 in the firm while another said he handed over £20,000. None of the investors we spoke to saw a return.
When contacted by the Sunday Mail over customer's bounce back emails, Farr blamed a technical issue but assured us he had contacted Microsoft who had resolved the problem.
However, when emails from customers again failed to be delivered, he blamed a spelling error in the email address listed on the website.
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