TONY HETHERINGTON: Apex is betting on sport with your cash

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

A.T. writes: Since you wrote about Apex Algorithms, has anything transpired?

The company’s accounts show that it has more than £1.6million in managed funds, so has the Financial Conduct Authority looked into it?

Betting man?: Nathan Burgoyne has gone from selling IOUs to placing bets

Tony Hetherington replies: Three years ago, I warned that Apex Incorporated Limited – to give the company its proper name – was using false claims to persuade investors to pump £50million into its loan bonds, with the promise of 16 per cent annual interest.

Apex advertised: ‘Our performance shows positive return on investment for investors for seven years.’

Not bad for a company that had only existed for four years. And while investors somehow got the impression that their capital was fully secured against company assets, I revealed that small print admitted that investors’ cash was unsecured and could be lost completely if Apex collapsed. Since then, Apex seems to have dumped its idea of selling its IOUs to the public. Instead, it has reinvented itself as a gambling business based in Sandwich, Kent, that beats the bookies by betting on football results.

It claims to detect ‘whenever the bookmakers’ odds do not reflect the true odds for a particular event’, at which point Apex gambles and – it says – makes ‘consistent double-digit yields’.

And in case this sounds like some fly-by-night outfit that will vanish before the final whistle, the company’s prospectus adds: ‘Apex Algorithms was established by ex-City workers who have a passion for both the financial and sports markets, are enthusiastic gamblers who are fully committed to intense quantitative analysis.’

Who are these ex-City workers? When I asked Apex’s owner Nathan Burgoyne this question three years ago, he failed to name a single one. This is still the case.

He cannot be talking about himself. I can find no record of him in the financial services industry, and when he was in court in 2015 and convicted of careless driving after badly injuring a pedestrian and killing his dog, Burgoyne described himself as a self-employed marketing representative. I doubt he was referring to his brother either: Daniel Burgoyne was jailed for two years for running a carbon credits investment scam.

One thing that has changed is that while company records still show 30-year-old Nathan Burgoyne as the owner of Apex, he has recruited another director. Paul Northcott, 58, has a real business background and says that he was a customer of Apex who was so impressed that in 2019 he became its managing director.

This brings us almost up to date. Almost, because Apex’s website has disappeared, and on December 4, Paul Northcott was arrested by Kent Police following allegations of fraud. He has been freed on bail while investigations continue.

Kent Police will not discuss the allegations, but I know that some investors are hoping any problems can be cleared up sooner rather than later if Apex can produce proper accounts showing where and when bets have been placed, and the results that back up the company’s claims of success and allow it to reward investors.

I did invite Northcott and Burgoyne to comment, but neither offered to give any comment, explanation or reassurance to investors. However, Northcott has told investors: ‘The bail conditions still prevent Nathan and I from communicating.’

He added: ‘I still strongly deny any allegation of wrongdoing and am working to clear my name, and I am sure Nathan feels the same way.’

Finally, to answer your question, I am not aware of any action by the Financial Conduct Authority. A decade or so ago, the City regulator did regard pooled gambling schemes as falling under its jurisdiction and worth investigating to protect consumers. Today, it does not.

Can we claim for being stuck in Oz?

Mrs S.T. writes: We were left stranded in Australia in March last year, when our Qantas flights were stopped.

Tui’s representatives were very helpful and eventually we got a Qatar Airways flight back to the UK.

But we have not been able to make contact with Tui for a refund of the return flights we had booked, or the consequent cost of the extra four nights’ accommodation in Sydney.

No contact: Mrs S.T. was left stranded in Australia in March last year, when her Qantas flights were stopped

Tony Hetherington replies: When Qantas cancelled your return flights because of the pandemic, you faced a bill of about £3,500 to get back to Britain. This was far more than the original cost of the Qantas flights, but you reckoned it was worth it to get home. I contacted Tui, which blamed delays on the sheer number of refund claims it was handling, but within a few days your credit card account received £1,192, which was the cost of the cancelled flight.

However, Tui explained that it was an agent, and the cost of your extra nights in a hotel in Sydney should be met by a different company, Austravel.

I contacted Austravel. It did not reply to repeated invitations to comment but has suddenly paid you £715, which you say is more than you expected. So after months of stress you can put this behind you.

I can’t get my £2,642 from Jaja

Mrs S.G. writes: My Post Office credit card was taken over by a company called Jaja, which I have never heard of.

From that day on, we could not look online at our accounts or manage them without downloading the Jaja app and registering with it.

However, like thousands of other cardholders who tried, I found this does not work.

Not a good sign: Mrs S.G. could not look online at her accounts or manage them without downloading the Jaja app

Tony Hetherington replies: Apart from the sheer inconvenience of having to download an app from a company you do not know, and then being made to register with them, you faced a financial problem. A refund of £2,642 was credited to your card by BA, and because Jaja had taken over your card, you could not get at your own money.

I contacted Jaja and two days later your BA refund was successfully transferred to your bank along with a modest goodwill gesture by way of an apology. What went wrong with the app and your online access? Jaja would only say that there were ‘some teething issues’. I hope other cardholders have found that these have been resolved.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email [email protected]. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.