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A company that was fronted by Homes Under the Hammer star Martin Roberts has plunged into administration, with all its staff laid off.
Martin hosts the BBC show, alongside co-hosts including Dion Dublin, and often visits Stoke-on-Trent to film auction buyers flipping cheap properties in the city.
And now Asset Academy, in which BBC Martin and his wife, Kirsty, had shares, has gone under, carrying debts topping £3 million. A string of complaints have emerged from customers claiming they paid cash and heard nothign back have emerged.
READ MORE: Northwood house project hits massive problem on Homes Under the Hammer
The company held training sessions to help investors succeed, charging customers for seminars or mentoring. According to its website, Martin was an ‘advanced speaker’ who shared his expertise of buying at auction.
The property expert is a familiar face to millions of viewers of BBC One daytime favourite Homes Under the Hammer – which features ordinary people buying homes at auction, then doing them up for a profit.
Martin, 59, appears in online videos promoting Asset Academy on its YouTube channel. In one, he claims: “The great thing about property investing is, with the right training and the right guidance, anyone can do it.
“You don’t need to be some prima ballerina, you don’t need to be some God-given talent. Anybody from any walk of life, I believe, with the right training and right support, can become a successful property investor.”
On its website, the company promised to provide “a complete property education through delivering high-quality, rich-in-content courses, workshops, webinars and self-study programmes that teach you how to invest in property safely and profitably”.
But would-be clients left a string of angry reviews before the administrators were called in, The Mirror reports.
One wrote on Trustpilot: “After I had booked in and paid for a course, they cancelled and moved it to a date that I couldn’t do, so I asked for the money back guarantee and have been chasing them for five weeks with no reply. Save your money and go for someone better.”
Another said: “I registered to attend [online] training on the 22nd February 2023, paying the booking fee. It is now over one month later and I have still not been provided with details.”
A spokesman for Martin said his involvement was as a brand ambassador, an auction trainer and a minority shareholder who has never received dividends
He added: “He had no involvement in the financial operation of the company. He stopped his association several months ago. Martin himself is currently owed a considerable amount of money.”
Quantuma Advisory, appointed as the firm’s administrators at the end of March, was contacted for comment.
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