Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Jennifer Hyland & Chiara Fiorillo

Conman accused of scamming £100,000 from Brits says he will personally repay all victims

A conman accused of scamming numerous Brits out of £100,000 has claimed he will personally repay all his victims.

Matthew Farr, 37, was jailed for a solar panel scheme in which he used the deposits of people in Scotland for gambling and luxury living.

He is now at the centre of new rip-off claims at his car repair firm based in England - and alleged victims who want to get their money back claimed the email address Farr has given them does not exist.

Farr, from Glasgow, has now claimed he will "personally repay all customers and investors" of Masco Detailing Ltd.

A lengthy statement on the company website said: "The sum total of personal loss and debt I have now far surpasses the sum total of investors and customers.

"Living the life of luxury off of other people's money couldn't be further from the truth and I estimate that the number of customers left out of pocket equates to less than 0.1 per cent of all customers serviced by Masco.

He has been accused of scamming people out of £100,000 (Collect)
The conman was due to appear in court after a customer launched a civil action against him (Collect)

"Despite this, I do not wish to see anyone out of pocket due to Masco so my intention is to personally repay all customers and investors who lost money due to the company going out of business from my future earnings."

But victims of the Glasgow conman - who modelled himself on Jordan Belfort, the fraudster portrayed in hit film The Wolf Of Wall Street - said their emails had been returned to the sender, reports the Daily Record.

It comes after Farr, who also used the name Matthew Scott, was ordered to spend a week in jail after failing to appear in court.

He was due to appear in court after a customer launched a civil action against him over a payment of £3,450 to Masco Detailing for work on his car in August 2021 which was allegedly never carried out or refunded.

He was ordered to pay the man £4,078.28 in March last year. However, Farr did not pay and failed to appear at Nuneaton County Court in Warwickshire about the debt. He was found in contempt of court in December and a warrant was issued.

After being made aware of Farr's new online promise, the victim contacted the firm via the email address provided in order to request a refund. But it bounced back saying the host or domain name was "not found".

The 44-year-old victim said: "I'm not surprised. It's a conman conning people all over again."

A former F1 mechanic also contacted the email address to inquire about a refund on the £10,000 he invested and lost but received a bounce-back email.

Masco Detailing was formed in July 2020 with Farr, under the name Scott, as sole director. He persuaded scores of people to invest in the firm with the promise of lucrative returns but they claim he vanished after taking their cash.

Farr, who now lives in Leamington Spa, is also accused by customers of taking money upfront for jobs not done. A man invested more than £75,000 in the firm while another said he handed over £20,000. None of the investors saw a return.

When contacted by the Sunday Mail over customer's bounce-back emails, Farr blamed a technical issue but assured he had contacted Microsoft which had resolved the problem. However, when emails from customers again failed to be delivered, he blamed a spelling error in the email address listed on the website.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.