Being the victim of a scam is often about so much more than just losing money.
Author Paul McClean put a huge amount of love and work into a book about motorcycle racers, only to see the printing company disappear with his £4,000.
“It was very personal as it contained photographs of riders who had passed away, and had the backing of parents and friends of the deceased,” said Paul, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland.
“It's very hard to get over this,160 people had pre-ordered and paid for my book.
“My reputation has been damaged big time and there are people I can't meet anymore.
“This man has really damaged a lot of innocent people who have tried to create a dream.”
By “this man”, Paul means Neill John, director of Houseprint Ltd, which collapsed owing almost £500,000.
This was not a one-off, the notorious Mr John having previously run publishing disasters Masterclass Associates Limited, which owed more than £200,000 to creditors, Ambeck Corporation Limited, which owed £151,000 and Tyson Media Limited, which owed £315,000.
A damning Insolvency Service report states that he repeated the same “flawed business model” and “There were no reasonable or probable grounds for expecting Houseprint to succeed where Masterclass, Ambeck and TML had already failed.”
In Paul's case, the publisher repeatedly changed its trading name while hiding behind virtual office addresses in London and Glasgow and claiming that his books had been printed in the Ukraine.
It used excuses from bad weather to customs hold-ups to explain the delay in delivery, before stopping all communication.
John, 49 and from Barry near Cardiff, has just been banned from being a company director for eight years. He was most recently a director of Hardback Printer Limited, trading as Trade Book Print. He resigned in February, according to Companies House.
"This was more than just a book and at least 2,000 hours was spent preparing the files," said Mr McClean.
"Bolton rider Malachi Mitchell Thomas who lost his life racing was to feature over ten pages in a tribute to the young rider, endorsed by his mother.
"I was to receive the books in late October 2017, this was the start of nothing but lies and name-changing.
"He continued to promise delivery seven times."
Mr McClean is hoping that the police will now take an interest.
