Quite possibly, yes. In fact, several financial advisors as well as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) have already paid out compensation to those who were mis-sold.

You could be owed compensation if you:

• Transferred your pension to a SIPP
• Invested in Dolphin Trust or other high-risk investments
• Aren’t earning over £100k a year
• Aren’t a sophisticated investor

If any of these reflect your circumstances, then you may have been mis-sold.

The German Property Group offered high-risk, speculative investments to investors in return for very attractive returns, however, they were rarely sold as a high-risk investment, especially to those who invested through their Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) or Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS). This was regularly done through companies such as Liberty SIPP, The Lifetime SIPP Company or Guinness Mahon.

The idea of the investment was to purchase listed buildings in Germany then renovate them and turn them into luxury apartments. It seemed like a brilliant idea and even received funding from the German Government.

Investors were promised returns of 9% and 12% over 3 or 5-year investments, the early investors were paid promptly, leading to them reinvesting their funds to make even more money. In May 2019 the BBC released an exposé in their show “You and Yours” they discovered that some of the buildings that the company had purchased were derelict and some of the properties that the company advised they were renovating were not even, in fact, owned by the company!

This investment was mis-sold to many of the investors plus, the introducers (who were often unregulated) were paid commissions of up to 20% of the client’s investment which provided plenty of inspiration for them to sell the investment to whoever they could.

Many investors have experienced issues claiming compensation on these investments due to the fact that The German Property Group and many of the introducers were not regulated. We review each claim on a case-by-case basis, reviewing every angle of a possible claim to establish a route that we can take in order to get our clients the compensation they deserve.