The tale of Westbeach

In 2018, glossy brochures promised a dream: luxury 2 and 3-bedroom apartments, some with sea views, a bar, gym, restaurant, spa, and rooftop pools. A 10-year letting agreement with guaranteed income, "asset-backed" and "hands off". What could go wrong? Everything. The scheme was designed to fail - a fraud from the start.

Enticed by the promise of a secure investment, many buyers purchased apartments as 'pension pots'. In total, 64 units at this site were sold off-plan, with owners spread across the globe.

These were not wealthy investors but ordinary working people - teachers, nurses, retirees - trusting their savings to what looked like a rock-solid opportunity. Instead, they became victims of a carefully orchestrated deception.

By early 2019, the reality began to unravel. The developer claimed "financial trouble", but in truth, every unit had already been sold - the fraud was complete. Construction ground to a halt. The apartments were barely 80% finished. No utilities, no drainage, no way forward. Exposed to the harsh North Devon sea air, the site quickly began to decay.

The dream was over. Or so it seemed...

Then came the turning point: technology united us, the victims.

Through WhatsApp and social media, all 64 owners connected. Instead of walking away, we chose to fight. This diverse group brought together legal minds, construction know-how, project management experience and, above all, dogged determination.

United, we refused to let Westbeach Phases 3 and 5 fade into yet another forgotten property scandal.

Raising extra funds for something already paid for was no small ask, but we knew without action, everything was lost. Against the odds, we raised another £3 million and set about completing what had been abandoned. By 2021, the buildings were structurally complete.

Before going into administration, the developer had rigged temporary electricity supplies to fool surveyors into issuing completion certificates. This left us, the owners, with crippling costs, legal battles, and years of delay just to secure basic utilities.

Worse still, the site’s Head Lease had been secretly sold to a shadowy offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, which blocked permissions to the National Grid and used its position as leverage for control of the site.

For five long years, we endured a Kafkaesque legal nightmare simply to switch on the lights. Only in May 2025, after countless court actions, was electricity finally connected.

But we weren’t done.

During our investigations, we discovered the same developer had used this fraudulent model on 18 sites across the UK - robbing honest working people of millions of pounds in the process. It became clear that the scale of the alleged fraud was huge and somewhere in the region of £50 million.

So, we took action.

In 2021, we filed a High Court case: "4vvv Ltd and others v Spence and others". After years of preparation, hundreds of hours of research, and enormous personal and financial cost, the case was finally heard in 2024 during a 10-week trial in London’s Rolls Building.

One defendant showed up. Another dialled in from his mansion in Florida fearful of arrest if he returned to the UK.

As the judge would later describe, the legal cost to us, the claimants, was "eye-watering" - but the result was worth every penny.

On 27 September 2024, the judgement was handed down: Guilty! Of fraud, deception, conspiracy and running a Ponzi scheme. They were convicted criminals. We had won!

Despite the overwhelming guilty Judgement and the award of multi-million pound damages, not a penny has been received to this day! Unfortunately our legal system is broken.

If there’s one thing this story proves, it’s this: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” - Helen Keller

We are very aware that MyWestbeach is still not 100%. We know that improvements are needed and that not everything is as we would like it to be. We are continually striving to improve what MyWestbeach has to offer.

Together, the individual apartment owners have saved MyWestbeach from becoming derelict and these apartments are now operated collectively by the owners. It’s certainly not what we were sold, but our fate is now firmly in our own hands.

We hope you have a fabulous stay and we mean that from the bottom of our hearts. When the story gets told on Netflix or similar, you can be sure it WILL have the obligatory happy ending! By choosing to stay with us you have become part of that story - and we couldn't be more thankful.