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Be VERY wary dealing with Specialist Cars of Malton

rob osprey

Member
Joined
18 Sep 2019
Messages
12
NEGATIVE REVIEW

Apologies for not posting sooner on this, I couldn't as I hadn't been paid in full. I now have so here's the text of the Google review that I just updated.

** Scam Alert **

Be VERY wary dealing with Specialist Cars of Malton Limited. In October 2018 I paid top price (£235,000) when I bought what was supposed to be an immaculate, fully original and fully restored 1972 Porsche 911 2.4S. This is what Specialist Cars of Malton advertised the car as. As a kid I'd always wanted to own a 911 the same age as me, and this was me fulfilling a lifelong dream at the ripe age of 49. How the dream went sour....

I was assured by John Hawkins (the owner) that all the restoration work was conducted in-house at Specialist Cars of Malton to a very high standard and this was "the best classic 911 2.4S he'd ever seen or sold". Impulsively and without an inspection I took him at his word. Shortly after taking delivery of the car I experienced a few minor running issues. I live on the south coast, so rather than take back to the dealer I took it to a classic Porsche specialist local to me. They quickly and sadly informed me that what I'd bought was absolutely NOT an original restored 911 2.4S.

It was in actual fact a parts-bin frankenstein re-creation of lots of different 911 cars, from different years, from different models and not a particularly well put together one at that. They gave me a very long list of issues and inconsistencies which was too long to read, some of which actually made the car dangerous to use. I immediately informed John Hawkins about this. Initially he tried to fob it off as "nonsense" and to reassure me, but he could not ignore the experts who really had nothing to gain by only telling me the truth. Eventually John Hawkins said "OK, I see where you are coming from, I'll take the car back and refund you". This was in November 2018.

Since then John Hawkins and his lawyer Mark Jones of Gordons LLP have done nothing but mess me about, promising to pay and then missing every deadline they agreed. Despite many false promises I am yet to receive my payment of £235k, Specialist Cars of Malton and Gordons Solicitors citing "poor cashflow" as the reason I cannot be paid. I have in writing that I will be paid in full on 8th March 2019. If this happens then (and only then) will I remove this review. Until I am paid in full this review stays to prevent others trusting Mr Hawkins and falling into the same trap. If I could give a zero star review I would.

UPDATE 18.9.19 - Since not receiving a penny, I had to instruct debt collectors to recover my losses. Thankfully today the car was finally collected and I've been repaid in full. But the cost to me in time, effort, worry and my cashflow has been significant. If you choose to deal with John Hawkins or Specialist Cars of Malton - good luck to you. My experience couldn't have been worse.
 
Glad this all worked out for you ,but £235k for a year wow its an absolute mare knowing who to trust these days its one horror story after another, I suppose a bit of a lesson here (not having a dig) that an inspection by an independent party before parting with your cash is a must regardless of dealers so called reputation.
 
Totally, no dig taken. I should have had an independent inspection 100%. Ive become a bit complacent over the years trusting car dealers completely and always getting exactly what I paid for with no issues. This time it tripped me up. Easy to be wise after the event...
 
Re: "Specialist" Cars of Malton

rob osprey said:
Apologies for not posting sooner on this, I couldn't as I hadn't been paid in full. I now have so here's the text of the Google review that I just updated.

** Scam Alert ** Be VERY wary dealing with Specialist Cars of Malton Limited. In October 2018 I paid top price (£235,000) when I bought what was supposed to be an immaculate, fully original and fully restored 1972 Porsche 911 2.4S. This is what Specialist Cars of Malton advertised the car as. As a kid I'd always wanted to own a 911 the same age as me, and this was me fulfilling a lifelong dream at the ripe age of 49. How the dream went sour....I was assured by John Hawkins (the owner) that all the restoration work was conducted in-house at Specialist Cars of Malton to a very high standard and this was "the best classic 911 2.4S he'd ever seen or sold". Impulsively and without an inspection I took him at his word. Shortly after taking delivery of the car I experienced a few minor running issues. I live on the south coast, so rather than take back to the dealer I took it to a classic Porsche specialist local to me. They quickly and sadly informed me that what I'd bought was absolutely NOT an original restored 911 2.4S. It was in actual fact a parts-bin frankenstein re-creation of lots of different 911 cars, from different years, from different models and not a particularly well put together one at that. They gave me a very long list of issues and inconsistencies which was too long to read, some of which actually made the car dangerous to use. I immediately informed John Hawkins about this. Initially he tried to fob it off as "nonsense" and to reassure me, but he could not ignore the experts who really had nothing to gain by only telling me the truth. Eventually John Hawkins said "OK, I see where you are coming from, I'll take the car back and refund you". This was in November 2018. Since then John Hawkins and his lawyer Mark Jones of Gordons LLP have done nothing but mess me about, promising to pay and then missing every deadline they agreed. Despite many false promises I am yet to receive my payment of £235k, Specialist Cars of Malton and Gordons Solicitors citing "poor cashflow" as the reason I cannot be paid. I have in writing that I will be paid in full on 8th March 2019. If this happens then (and only then) will I remove this review. Until I am paid in full this review stays to prevent others trusting Mr Hawkins and falling into the same trap. If I could give a zero star review I would.

UPDATE 18.9.19 - Since not receiving a penny, I had to instruct debt collectors to recover my losses. Thankfully today the car was finally collected and I've been repaid in full. But the cost to me in time, effort, worry and my cashflow has been significant. If you choose to deal with John Hawkins or Specialist Cars of Malton - good luck to you. My experience couldn't have been worse.

OMG a £235k Fake !!

Topic split into it's own thread
 
rob osprey said:
Totally, no dig taken. I should have had an independent inspection 100%. Ive become a bit complacent over the years trusting car dealers completely and always getting exactly what I paid for with no issues. This time it tripped me up. Easy to be wise after the event...

Glad to hear you got your money back.

I can only imagine the head ache you have been through and the run around by their lawyers.

How on earth lawyers can cover up criminal activities is shocking.

Do you have the Reg number and the VIN number of this fake you can share ?
 
Wow, just wow.

This is the farce of the law in this country. This is a major fraud and yet the police will have zero interest in it as it involves erm.......doing some actual police work !

Yes I am bitter, and yes I have first hand experience of them showing zero interest in this type of fraud :roll:

How hard is it to prove that this is a conscious and deliverate act of misrepresentation with the aim of defrauding the buyer out of a considerable sum of money :dont know:
 
ps whilst I fully appreciate the OP in wanting to secure his own interests first I would suggest that he:

- reports the matter to action fraud. This is despite my first hand experience of them referring these sort of matters to the local police who will then tell you they donlt have enough resource to priorise ie do anything about it :roll:

- report the solicitor to their standards board especially if they provided a written undertaking over payments that did not happen ie they should not provide such an undertaking without funds being held to order. I'm guessing they carefullky worded any commitment to avoid an undertaking being entered into :dont know: I would still report them in any case if you feel they where complicite in deliberately misleading you. If it is a larger partnership I will also report the matter to the senior practice manager as it may well be a case of a solicitor gone rogue with a client (It does happen more than people realise).
 
Agree Jonttt. However report a "Hate Crime" & a dedicated police unit will spring into action immediately as local Plod seek to show their "Diversity" credentials offering the "victim" all sorts of special measures with CPS lawyers & police Witness care Unit keeping you filly abreast of all developments in your case!!!
 
Thank you Rob for sharing your story. I'm delighted you got a positive outcome in the end but, as you say, there's no compensation for the trouble and strife and stress and heartache caused by John Hawkins / Specialist Cars of Malton to you in relation to that whole incident.

What should have been an open-and-shut case of "If you're not happy, please return the car for a full refund" obviously became a complete nightmare for you and, I can only imagine, has consumed your life over the last year.

Meanwhile the first anniversary of the promised completion date of my car is rapidly approaching and I'm still rocking around in my little Clio 172 beater longing for the car to be completed so that I can commence my legal proceedings against Hawkins / SCoM.

Once again, thanks for sharing Rob and well done on forcing through a resolution.
 
OMG. Arthur Daley is alive and well #unbefuckinlievable
 
Pic Attached now...
 

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This seems to be the same car albeit the engine size seems to be wavering between 2.3 and 2.4 ...
 

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Thats the one. Registration number GBR 478. It is NOT a genuine 911S 2.4 far from it. Ciaran - you are right, I was within my legal right to reject the car in 30 days for good reason and demand a full refund, but ultimately that counts for very little. The only thing that got him to take it seriously was when some big guys sat on his desk..shame to resort to that, but cowards like Hawkins hide behind lawyers and the length of the legal process.

Agreed with some of the other comments, this was fraud. Pure and simple.
 
Wow, glad you got your money back and thanks for posting. Shocking.

From memory one chap who also had serious money loss from these fraudsters is still out of pocket for a large amount. Maybe you could refer him to your debt collectors and see if they can collect for him :)
 

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