This is from THISISMONEY link. As you can see, anything from CMS and Jim Sheridan is probably toxic waste...
Debt scheme reveals a network of scams
30 November 2003
EVERY week, Tony Hetherington replies to readers' letters, adding comments, advice and the results of his enquiries.
If you think you are a victim of financial mismanagement, or want advice before investing, write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS. Sorry, but he cannot give personal replies. Please send only copies of documents - if these are relevant to your enquiry. We regret that they cannot be returned.
Mrs D. H. writes: My husband received a business proposal from James Edwards of Wellsbridge Services Ltd in Reading, Berkshire. For £2,177, he can be licensed as an Asset Protection Specialist marketing a scheme in which people can put their home and savings beyond the reach of debt collectors. Is this legal, and if so, would it be profitable?
wELL, I opened the can, and guess what I found? Worms. Wellsbridge Services Limited is supposed to be at 12 Tilbury Close in Reading. In fact, it is not even in this country.
It trades here and asks people to send cheques made out to Wellsbridge, but has overlooked the formality of registering with Companies House. And there is no sign of James Edwards either.
What I did find at Tilbury Close, though, was a very interesting network of small companies.
There is CMS Publications Ltd, Field Management Services Ltd and Medina Ltd. CMS advertises collagen pills, claiming that they can 'beat arthritis'. And James Edwards wants people to pay him £2,992 for a licence to sell them. Government health watchdogs are questioning CMS about its medical claims.
CMS is also behind an expensive course in becoming an airline pilot. Signing himself 'Capt. J. Edwards', James Edwards says: 'We are a bricks and mortar company which has been established for years.' Really? CMS Publications was set up in February this year and Edwards is not even a director.
Trading Standards officers in Reading are also aware of CMS Publications and would be interested to hear from readers who have had dealings with it.
Medina Ltd is just as interesting. In 1999, Medina issued a disgraceful advertising mailshot. It claimed the Millennium Bug would cause computers to crash, banks to close and civilisation to collapse. Under a secret 'Plan X', armed guards would fight howling mobs and looters.
Medina's answer was a £65 manual on protecting yourself and ripping off your neighbours by buying their homes and valuables for a song.
Medina is run by Stuart Godfrey Smith, alias Stuart Goldsmith, who is as elusive as James Edwards. There is no sign of him at Tilbury Close either. However, two people at CMS's offices last Thursday were husband and wife Marion and Peter Field, who both worked for Smith in the past. In fact, some people suggest that Smith and Edwards are one and the same.
Marion Field is company secretary of CMS Publications and the company's only boss in Britain. The sole director is Linda Sheridan, who lives in Florida and is James Edwards' wife.
Marion Field would not talk to me. However, Peter Field, company secretary of Field Management Services, told me: 'Field Management Services is just a fulfilment company.
'The mailing is from the United States.'
But the mailing is done in the name of CMS Publications, and surely his wife is the company secretary? 'Not as far as I know,' Peter Field replied - though Companies House confirms she is.
How about Wellsbridge Services then? 'I don't know it. We don't deal with them,' Field said.
So what happens when someone sends a cheque to Wellsbridge at 12 Tilbury Close? 'I expect we would forward it on,' he replied.
How could that happen if he had not heard of the company? Magically, Field then came up with a Florida address for Wellsbridge.
As a parting shot, I asked Field whether the asset protection scheme in the mailshot issued by his wife's company is based on United States law. Would it be legal and sound in Britain?
He told me: 'I don't know anything about the content. We just do the fulfilment here.'
So the deal offered to your husband comes from a man in Florida who pretends that both he and his company are in Reading. And the people in Reading can't say whether it will work.
I think you just saved your husband £2,177.
