Peter McKenna discussing Dolphin Trust on BBC Radio 4

In the BBC interview, Peter explained that TLW Solicitors were currently working with clients who are concerned about their investment in Dolphin. TLW are also being contacted by Dolphin investors from across the world, including Singapore, who say that they are not receiving the returns from their investment that they were promised.

Often recommended to individuals by an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), Dolphin Trust, now known as German Property Group, is still commonly available to investors via a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). However, many of the bonds with Dolphin Trust are only payable upon maturity which takes two or five years. In addition, the investment is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The BBC report pointed out that some of the properties to be renovated and converted, for example into residential flats, were simply not suitable and would require substantially more investment than was projected.

The report also questioned why many investors had no information regarding the specific properties they were investing in, as well as highlighting the significant commissions, up to 20% of the money which investors invested, earned by those selling the investments.

The specialist financial mis-selling team at TLW Solicitors have been contacted by concerned investors who have not yet received the returns promised from their Dolphin Trust investment or who are struggling to get their capital investment repaid to them.

Many of these investors did not realise, and were not made aware by their financial adviser, that schemes like this can be very risky. They are now understandably worried about the sustainability of their investment and the advice they were given by their financial adviser to invest in Dolphin.

To hear the full programme, follow this link and log into BBC iPlayer.

Commenting on the BBC report and interview, Peter McKenna said:

Over recent months we have seen more and more enquiries from Dolphin Trust investors who say they are not getting what their financial adviser told them they would. In most cases we see, we find it extremely surprising that such a high risk investment has been recommended to our clients given their lack of investment experience and their limited capacity for loss.

The BBC investigation has highlighted some matters which we were not aware of and we will be looking into these and other issues to see how our clients have be affected by the financial advice they were given.