Former Dudley Council deputy leader’s firm owed Brazilian housing investors £21m

Former Tory councillor, Charles Fraser-Macnamara, from Halesowen, was a director of Ecohouse Developments Ltd along with Anthony Jon Domingo Armstrong-Emery.

Founded in 2010 the firm offered investments in construction of social housing in Brazil.

Investors would typically pay £23,000 per unit and expect to receive their capital plus a 20 per cent return a year later, the court heard.

People were encouraged to invest by marketing literature and contracts claimed Ecohouse owned the land the housing was to be built on.

In 2013, however, concerns about the company surfaced and by 2015, Ecohouse Developments was placed into liquidation owing more than 350 investors circa £21m.

The liquidation triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Fraser-Macnamara, aged 60, a solicitor who was struck off last year, elected to provide a disqualification undertaking for nine years to the Secretary of State in January 2017 for his misconduct in running the company – meaning he cannot run a company.

But Armstrong-Emery, 41, disputed the allegations.

The High Court however upheld there was no evidence to show Ecohouse owned the land and marketing materials were misleading.

The court also heard the two directors had caused Ecohouse to maintain inadequate accounting records.

Armstrong-Emery, who has links to Gibraltar, failed to appear at the High Court where Chief registrar Briggs handed down a Disqualification Order.

He is banned from 14 years from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Cheryl Lambert, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Members of the public thought they were getting a great deal but were unfortunately tricked into investing into a company that provided false and misleading information.”