Major Harlequin adviser calls in liquidators over client redress

Tailormade, which advised on self-invested personal pension (SIPP) transfers into troubled overseas property company Harlequin and was a major distributor of Harlequin investments, is entering liquidation because it cannot finance redress payments to clients.

Accountants RSM Tenon are being appointed as liquidators. Harlequin - which has taken about £400m from investors to invest in properties across the Caribbean - has been rocked by problems since the start of the year, including three warnings by the regulator, investigations by the Serious Fraud Office and the Insolvency Service, and its sales arm going into administration. Tailormade - which has an advice arm, an alternative investment business and a SIPP - said it stopped taking new money into the overseas property scheme in January following a Financial Services Authority (FSA) aler...