Collapsed investment firm 79th Group never owned Loch Ness and Anglesey development sites

The company's directors have had their assets frozen

Hello and welcome to the 84th edition of The Southport Lead.

Today’s edition revisits travails at The 79th Group, a Southport-based company which attracted more than £150m in investments towards global activities including property developments and gold mining.

However, police raids led to its collapse earlier this year and it is now considered to be potentially the biggest Ponzi scheme in UK history.

In particular, we look today at two UK development sites which were advertised by the company and attracted tens of millions of pounds of investment - but were never actually owner by The 79th Group.

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Southport briefing

🌼 Southport has been given the Overall Winner award at the Britain in Bloom 2025 UK Finals. Some 150 volunteers were praised were their fine work across more than 40,000 hours maintaining green spaces, including at Town Hall Gardens, Hesketh Park and Botanic Gardens. The town was also recognised as the Coastal category winner for achieving Gold in each of the three judging criteria – horticultural excellence, environmental care and community engagement.

Judges judges Lesley Jelleyman and Mary Bagley said: “From the very start of our tour in Lord Street to the finish in the Botanical Gardens, the route had horticultural gems, fabulous environmental and biodiversity initiatives, and was totally litter- and graffiti-free, with not a deadhead in sight!”

🛠️ Repair work on Southport Pier is expected to begin early next year once the Government has accepted Sefton Council’s business plan. The council’s cabinet will receive an update on Thursday which confirms the government’s commitment of £20m. This is expected to cover the full replacement of decking boards and timber joists, extensive steelwork repairs and replacements, installation of new gates and CCTV, and the implementation of a new long-term maintenance regime. Once under way, work is expected to take 14 months.

🏵️ Lady Marina Dalglish MBE is to be appointed as Independent Chair of the project board overseeing the regeneration of Southport’s Town Hall Gardens. She will work alongside the families of Alice Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe and funders as the £10m project which will transform the space outside the Town Hall into an inclusive community focussed events space.

She said: “Southport has been our family home for many years and we were deeply touched by the strength and hope shown by everyone involved in their desire to give something back to the town. The Town Hall Gardens regeneration will be a wonderful way to create a lasting legacy to the great people of Southport, while honouring the fantastic spirits of Alice, Bebe and Elsie. To be the Independent Chair on the project board is a real privilege and I will do my utmost to support the families and to help deliver something that they and the entire town can be hugely proud for generations to come.”

⚽ In a more immediate change to that space, Southport FC is to open a community cafe in the unit formerly occupied by Remedy. The cafe will be run by the club’s Community Foundation and it will be on a short-term basis which depends on the speed of works on the Town Hall Gardens regeneration.

The charity’s proposal is to operate seven days a week “as a community café and serve as a visible, active community hub in the centre of Southport offering positive social outcomes over profit”. All of the profits made will be donated to the community foundation, which directly supports local programmes and outreach projects across the town. The Big Onion has recently opened in the former Crave unit on a similar basis.

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Collapsed 79th Group never owned development sites which attracted tens of millions in investments

Seventy Ninth Group HQ at Southport Business Park. Pic: The Southport Lead

By Jamie Lopez

A company which raked in tens of millions in investments before collapsing never actually used investors money for two development sites as promised.

The 79th Group, which was based at Southport Business Park, attracted investors to buy loan notes with promises of 12-15% returns before being raided by anti-fraud specialists from the City of London Police earlier this year.

In total, the company owes people more than £200 million and it is suspected of being one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever seen in the UK.

Those raids led to four arrests and weeks later the company - which was split into around 55 individual companies which had no distinct bank accounts from one another - collapsed into administration. Weeks later, the company said it had stopped taking investments and asked for a pause on paying returns. Soon after, it was forced into administration, with staff made redundant and investors were left wondering if they’d ever get their money back with some out of pocket to the tune of six figures.

According to reports, a court last week granted a worldwide freezing order on the assets of the company’s three directors - David Webster and his two sons Curtis and Jake. Such an order effectively means that those affected are unable to unjustifiably dispose of, or otherwise deal with, their own assets regardless of where they are based in the world.

In the case of the 79th Group, business dealings grew from the small family base in Southport to include operations in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Canada with companies based in the UK, Canada, US, Guinea, Dubai, Switzerland, and Gibraltar. This included luxury development sites, gold mining and a company set up last year to offer clients the use of private jets.

As first reported by Business Desk, the order also means the three men must provide detailed information about their assets and surrender their passports.

Meanwhile administrators of the 79th Luxury Living Six Ltd (LL6) - a company which was to deal with property purchases in Anglesey and Loch Ness - say it could take “years” to fully trace the assets of the company due to the “complex nature of the 79th Group operations”