Three people arrested in £76m luxury care home fraud probe

Three people have been arrested in a £76m fraud investigation involving a failed luxury care home business.

The Carlauren Group was launched by Sean Murray who intended to set up a network of luxury care homes across the UK.

The company raised £76m from roughly 600 potential investors who were supposed to be buying individual rooms worth £100,000 in dozens of luxury care homes.

Carlauren offered the investors an annual return of 10 per cent, but most of the care homes never opened and the business went into administration in 2019.

At the time it was reported that £50m of the £76m invested had gone missing.

The Serious Fraud Office, which has been investigating Carlauren, said people involved in the company had purchased a number of vehicles including two Lamborghinis, a McLaren 570GT, a private jet and two yachts.

The collapse also led to some elderly residents having to leave their homes.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today raided two addresses and arrested three people for fraud offences.

The raids took place at a rural property in the St Leonard's area of Dorset and in Aylesbury, Bucks.

Nick Ephgrave, director of the Serious Fraud Office, said: 'This company's abrupt collapse has created turmoil and enormous anxiety for many, with elderly people forced to vacate their homes and investors left with nothing.

'Today's arrests are a major development in our investigation and a step towards getting the answers so many people need.'

One of the projects was to transform Windlestone Hall in County Durham into a luxury care facility. 

The hall near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, is standing derelict despite investors shelling out £8.5m for 53 units in the property.

The Grade II-listed building was bought by Carlauren for £850,000 in 2017 who pledged to turn it into a luxurious care home by the end of 2019. 

Windlestone Hall was the birthplace in 1897 of former Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Between 1957 and 2006 it became a local authority residential special school. 

Land registry records, obtained by the BBC, showed investors came from across Europe, Africa, India, China and the Far East, to put money into the scheme and ranged from a Saudi Princess to a Wiltshire pensioner. 

At first income was paid to investors on a monthly basis, despite the building remaining derelict, covered in scaffolding with no residents living there. 

Investors said they were told they would receive a regular income that would be paid for from care home residents' fees. Payments reportedly dried up in the spring. 

South African businessman Bertus Van Jaarsveld told the BBC he paid £164,000 for one unit.

Carlauren, founded in 2015, describes itself as the 'UK's leading innovator' of care services and is believed to have sold units at another 23 similar properties in the UK. 

Some properties are open but some are yet to accept any paying customers.

More than 20 different companies fall under the Carlauren Group umbrella.