Bizarre Behaviour in Bolton

I’ve written regularly over the last few weeks about the many different ways of measuring risk in respect of newly incorporated companies. One of the most successful has proven to be geolocating the registration addresses and looking for patterns that indicate coordinated activity.

Traditionally, against a background of 3,000 to 3,500 new companies being registered every day, this has not been an easy task but, as we get to refine the algorithms driving Risk Alert (RA) far greater sensitivity is coming into play.

I’d like to take you through an example in detail but, before I begin, the usual disclaimer. Notwithstanding some quite noticeable coincidences in the following narrative, there is absolutely no assertion by me, either overtly or implied, that there is anything of a criminal or illicit nature involved.

I receive a daily alert from RA with a list of all addresses in the UK, be that streets, apartment blocks or industrial estates, where two or more companies have incorporated within the space of seven days.

However, given the scale of incorporations, there is always the likelihood of true coincidence, so to make close geographic proximity worthy of further investigation, there needs to be at least one other element tying the incorporations together.

This week, we have seen a spike of double companies in the same streets in Bolton. Additionally, they all have the same SIC code (46160 - Agents involved in the sale of textiles, clothing, fur, footwear, and leather goods) which is not one of the more common.

That’s worth a closer look.

Here’s the initial list.

·?14088207, WEBERSVEN LIMITED, 28 Lark St, Bolton, BL1 2UA

·?14090423, ZIEGENHE PETER LIMITED, 8 Lark St, Bolton, BL1 2UA

·?14088208, JWEARPOW LIMITED, Z09 26a, Chorley Old Road, Bolton, BL1 3AD,

·?14090304, JOANNESINNOTT LIMITED, Z29 26a, Chorley Old Road, Bolton, BL1 3AD

·?14088169, TRBGCXW LIMITED, 413 Weston St, Bolton, BL3 2AW,

·?14090397, KDHQIA LIMITED, 13 Weston St, Bolton, BL3 2AW

·?14088228, SINNOTTJOANNE LIMITED, 21 Fletcher St, Bolton, BL3 6AN,

·?14090416, BOUDONNAT LIMITED, 9 Fletcher St, Bolton, BL3 6AN

·?14088166, HJSAW LIMITED, 20 Bradbourne Cl, Bolton, BL3 6YL, Nationalities: British

·?14090336, NLCOLASGASTIN LIMITED, 27 Bradbourne C, Bolton, BL3 6YL

A couple of anomalies instantly leap off the page. Most notably the fact that there are two companies (JoanneSinnott Limited and SinnottJoanne Limited) with remarkably similar names but registered to different addresses.

Let’s have a look at each in a little more detail and keep in mind they are all alleged to be involved in the sale of textiles, clothing, fur, footwear, and leather goods.

Webersven Ltd has declared a German director/PSC called Weber Sven. Born in March 1969 he is described as a “Manufacturer”. My first comment would be that it looks like they have reversed his names during the incorporation process. I’m sure Sven Weber is a much more likely combination.

Looking for the address elicits the fact that 28 Lark Street doesn’t exist given that Lark Street is a small side road forming part of an industrial estate and comprises of just one building subdivided into a small number of units.

Which doesn’t bode well for the next company.

Ziegenhe Peter Limited has also declared a German director/PSC called (not entirely surprisingly) Peter Ziegenhe In. He is described as a “mathematician” (although I can’t help feeling it was supposed to be “manufacturer” and they just weren’t paying attention when selecting from the drop-down).

And, as we now know, there is no such place as 8 Lark Street, BL1 2UA.

Let’s move on to Chorley Old Road.

Given our issues with the Lark Street address, maybe it’s worth checking the address first.

And, sure enough, it doesn’t exist either. 22-26 Chorley Old Road is the home for Stonham Housing Association but from there the numbers go to 27 without any sign of a 26a.

What about the companies?

JWearPow Limited has appointed someone called Parker Russell Stansfeld as its Director/PSC. He is described as a “Manager”. And his names also seem to be in the wrong order.

At the same address is JoanneSinnot Limited. The Director/PSC is, believe it or not, Joanne Sinnott. She is also described as a “Manager”.

A couple of miles away is Weston Street, Bolton, which is largely industrialised. What few house there are start at 95 and finish at 143. Which is a problem for 13 and 413 which were given as the registered addresses.

Even more surprisingly, when we look at TRBGCXW Limited, we find the nominated Director/PSC is someone called Sinnott Steven James, a curious coincidence of Joanne’s surname and the German name reversal. He is asserted to be a “Manager”.

KDHQIA Limited at number 13 has Nicolas Gastin Caruel Limited (keep that name in mind). He’s a manufacturer and is French.

Let’s now walk a mile down the road to Fletcher Street where the good news is that both 9 and 21 exist!

And 21 Fletcher Street is, rather excitingly, home to SinnottJoanne Limited, doppelganger of JoanneSinnott Limited. So, does she own two houses in Bolton?

And the answer is “maybe” but that’s not the reason for the double naming as the director of SinnottJoanne Limited is one Sheehan Paul Michael who does at least maintain the tradition of putting the surname in as a first name and vice versa (oh, and he’s a manager).

At number 9 is Boudonnat Limited and this time the Director/PSC is Cristophe Boudonnat, another Frenchman with his name the right way round.

Round the corner (and it really is just round the corner) is Bradbourne Close and, once again, both 20 and 27 exist. But here it gets weird.

At number 20 is HJSAW Limited. The Director/PSC is (and I am not joking) named as Middleton British Citizen. Even more weirdly, the only other instance that I can find of someone registering with the name “British Citizen” happened last December to a company which was registered to an address in Birmingham which is also under observation by us for suspicious activity.

The Bolton Mr British Citizen is listed as a “Manager”.

And finally, as far as this list goes, there is NLCOLASGASTIN Limited which the observant amongst you will spot as being almost the identical name as the Director of KDHQIA Limited at 13 Weston Street.

I think, at this point, it is a reasonable proposition to assert that these companies are connected in some way.

And, if we go back to April, we find two further companies using the 46160 SIC Code in Bolton, namely, GJFXDOGPG LIMITED and CSGHR LIMITED, both registered to 19a Chorley Old Road, Bolton.

Whilst there is a 19 Chorley Old Road, it isn’t obvious there is a 19a however there is a firm of accountants who operate from this address.

Looking at GJFXDOGPG LIMITED we find that the named director is one David Paul Andrew. Someone with the same name and date of birth has previously been named as a director of another network we’ve been monitoring (and, once again, I am not joking) only this time the company was registered back in March of this year to an address in Kenilworth and his correspondence address was given as Park Lane, N17.

CSGHR LIMITED named Matthew Olayinka Olapo as director and I suspect he is a real person as someone with the same name and DoB has registered a couple of companies in Nottingham which is where I think he lives and where he knows nothing about this Bolton one.

But while we’re at 19a Chorley Road, it’s also worth pointing out that four other companies came up in Bolton last week as being registered to consecutive addresses. This time they were all Chinese, but they all gave 19 Chorley Old Road as their registered address.

Which is odd because the website for the accountants which live at 19a Chorley Old Road has a link to a page called, rather cryptically, “China” but which, when you click on it, simply says “test”.

Did I pass?