To the manor bought

"Lord of the Manor" titles are being bought at auction for thousands of pounds, provoking bitter disputes over the ownership of village greens and grass verges, and prompting campaigners to call for the abolition of feudal laws.
A village in the Peak District has become an unlikely battleground between the country's old feudal laws and the modern British legal system.

The title of Lord of the Manor of Alstonefield was bought for £10,000 in 1999 by a business in Wales.

That business is owned by Mark Roberts, who also styles himself Lord Marcher of Trelleck, another title his company owns. It owns 60 titles in all.

He claims ownership of grass verges and commons in Alstonefield, but the parish council has disputed this claim, saying it has an old legal document to prove a previous lord of the manor gave up rights to this land in the 1800s.

Mr Roberts initially had a caution put against first registration of the title across a 25,000-acre area covering the ancient parish, to make sure no-one else registered a lord of the manor title for the same area.

But it had the unintended effect of stopping house sales because lenders and buyers were made aware that someone had some sort of claim or interest in the area of land.

Some villagers also found they didn't have right of way into their properties, as Mr Roberts was claiming ownership of grass verges, and they ended up paying him for access. In one case, a resident paid £15,000 for land next to his house.

"It's been absolutely horrendous for ordinary families living within this situation," says Sue Fowler, a parish councillor in Alstonefield, who believes Mr Roberts is imposing 11th Century laws on a 21st Century community.

"I think it's about time we made it a criminal offence to make money in such a way."

Arguments
A similar situation arose in a village near Newport in Wales, Peterstone Wentloog, where Mr Roberts is also lord of the manor.

Then in 2005, the law changed so that no-one can charge a person for accessing their property via common land any more, as long as they can show they have been doing so for 20 years or more.

This change put an end to the practice, but in Alstonefield the arguments continued, despite the fact the caution had been lifted.

Mr Roberts claimed ownership of common land too, which includes several greens. He said he would lease the land to the parish council for a nominal sum. But the council refused as that would effectively recognise him as landowner.

Instead, the council applied for village green status so it could protect the villagers' free use of the land, no matter who owned it.

The lord objected and a public inquiry was called, at a cost to the parish council of £16,000. Earlier this month, Staffordshire County Council granted village green status to just four of Alstonefield's many grassy areas. That means the arguments could continue over more than 10 other pieces of land.

"We do not buy titles. We buy manors, which are the oldest form of landed estate," says Mr Roberts.

"We buy these old landed estates for the land including demesne agricultural land, pasture land, quarries, common land, waste land and foreshore that go with them, which we manage in a traditional way as any other major landowner does and has done over the last 1,000 years.

"We are in essence akin to a small version of the Crown Estate or Duchy of Cornwall Estate."

Scores of titles are bought and sold every year. Often people buy them for fun, like ex-boxer Chris Eubank, but some people see a business opportunity.

This is entirely legal and there is no doubt the titles can be valuable. As well as rights to land like wastes and commons, they can also give the holder rights over land.

For example, mineral rights, hunting and fishing rights, the right to hold a market - even the right to a beached whale, should one wash up in your manor.

However, it can be difficult to exercise feudal rights in today's legal landscape. For example, you cannot build a mine without planning permission and the mining of gold, silver and oil are subject to statutory restrictions.

Campaigners around the country, as well as some politicians and legal professionals, say manorial rights are anachronistic and ought to be abolished.

"This is a long way from the feudal system in the 13th Century," says Judith Bray, a land law expert from Buckingham University.

"People are looking at these rights for personal gain and for business opportunities. They no longer have the reciprocal duties that they owed in the 13th Century. It is now an opportunity to exploit their position."

She said the legal situation is very confusing because a piece of legislation in the 1920s separated manorial rights from the ownership of land.

It is not known how many manorial rights are even held, although the Land Registration Act 2002 set a 10-year window in which all such rights have to be registered.

Trespass

Mark Roberts strongly rebuts any suggestion that his pursuit of manorial rights causes a nuisance.

"I have a right to protect my land against modern encroachment and trespass," he told the BBC Radio 4's Law in Action programme. "The majority of listeners would not countenance a trespass in their back garden and neither will I, no matter how big the perpetrator."

The Law Commission in England and Wales is considering a project to abolish feudal land law, acknowledging the remnants cause "uncertainty" to the public, legal professionals and the courts. But any such project would not include a review of manorial rights.

Source: Ruth Alexander
BBC Radio 4's Law in Action


Comment

The lady from Birmingham University is wrong to say that 1920s legislation separated manorial rights from the land - they had always been separable and the 19th century saw many instances of impecunious landed families selling the land and retaining the lordship rights, or if more modern in their approach selling the rights (in the belief they were only of interest to moneyed snobs) but retaining the land. Some country solcitors and estate agents built up large portfolios of manorial titles as a result. The 1920s land law reforms abolished manorial tenure (called copyhold) but was not able to abolish lordships of the manor because the interests in them were too many, too varied and too untraceable for the necessary compensation scheme to be a viable option. It is hard to see how this could be got around now, especially as there is now a European dimension to the uncompensated loss of legal rights or privileges.

Emma Badian, London

Crown Council Statement on Release of Prisoners

July 23, 2007 - Crown Council Statement

The Crown Council of Ethiopia rejoices with the Ethiopian people in the just and compassionate release and pardon of our previously imprisoned countrymen, and calls for similar compassion and release for all political prisoners.

We are both mindful and thankful for the selfless and constant efforts and sacrifice of the many whose labors have converged to produce this historic moment of national reconciliation and healing. We are also particularly thankful in this instance for the wise guidance and counsel of the Elders – a venerable, treasured and enduring institution of traditional Ethiopian society and culture.

Providence has presented the Ethiopian people with this Golden Moment for national dialogue and reconciliation. We urge that the Elders and all Ethiopians seize this opportunity to exert maximum moral influence and guidance in an intense campaign for peace, social equity and the rule of law. We dare not fail in this effort as we are admonished by the lessons of history that even as there have been many great and ancient states, inevitably they all perished when they became fond of conflict – either with others or among themselves.

His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie has taught us that while different traditions, ethnic groupings and religions in their historic forms tend to bind us to limited groups and militate against the development of a broader sense of national or global community, the rich and ancient traditions of the Ethiopian people transcend and unite all Ethiopians in an enduring bond of nation and brotherhood.

HIM also taught that forgiveness is always an intimate and profound journey of healing and discovery. And though we may know fervently with every fiber of our being that we must forgive, still the quest for peace and forgiveness is fraught with frustration and difficulty.

By the end of 1941, Ethiopia, with British help, had finally broken the last remnants of the Italian Fascists’ unjust occupation and resistance. A large number of Italian soldiers, together with their commander-in-chief, became Ethiopia’s prisoners. The Ethiopian people and HIM demonstrated transcendent magnanimity and the extraordinary principle of unconditional forgiveness through HIM’s order that absolutely no retaliation be taken against the captured Italians – and even offered sanctuary to those Italians who wished to remain as émigrés and citizens. Our Ethiopian legacy has always strived for excellence, and if HIM and the Ethiopian people could find forgiveness for the vanquished Fascists, we can surely practice maturity and forgiveness in our dealings with each other.

God Bless Ethiopia…

R.A.U. Juchter van Bergen Quast opgenomen in de Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

Persbercht VBAN

De heer R.A.U. Juchter van Bergen Quast - voorzitter van de Vereniging Buitenlandse Adel in Nederland en lid van de New York State Bar Association - is als Companion opgenomen in de Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Bekende leden van de Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States waren de Ameriaanse presidenten Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison en William McKinley. Meer informatie over de Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States is te vinden in het standaardwerk van G. Stair Sainty, World Orders of Knighthood & Merit, Burke's Peerage & Gentry (UK), Buckingham 2006).

Russia: Monarchist Nostalgia Remains Powerful

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticleprint/2006/10/ebcf0091-3...

By Victor Yasmann

PRAGUE, October 2, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The recent reburial of the remains of Maria Fyodorovna, the Danish princess who married the future Aleksandr III of Russia in 1866, is the latest episode in a long-standing effort to cultivate the idea of restoring the monarchy in Russia.

The idea gained currency under President Boris Yeltsin in 1997, when his close circle, alarmed by the Russian president's ailing health, started to think about a possible successor. Some of them turned their attention to the living descendents of the Romanov dynasty. That same year, renovation work began at the Kremlin to restore the coronation hall and the tsar's throne. In 1998, Yeltsin attended a state ceremony to bury the remains of the last Russian emperor, Nicolas II, and his family, who were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.


Interest, however, in the monarchy idea waned as Yeltsin's circle realized that no living Romanov, for various reasons, had a legitimate claim to the Russian throne and the project was abandoned.

Putin-Era Monarchism

But under Russian President Vladimir Putin interest in Russia's imperial and monarchical past grew legs once again. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicolas II and his family. Since that time, Russia has seen a boom in the number of monarchist organizations. Recent years have seen the release of hundreds of books and films about the monarchy.

At various times, politicians from across the political spectrum have endorsed constitutional monarchy for Russia, including the former Union of Rightist Forces co-Chairman Boris Nemtsov, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko.

Many intellectuals and cultural icons have also jumped on the monarchy bandwagon. Two of Russia's most popular filmmakers, Nikita Mikhalkov and Stanislav Govorukhin, have paraded their monarchist colors. Stanislav Belkovsky, the founder of the National Strategy Institute, said in February 2005: "I believe that the restoration of the monarchy, either formally or informally, is the only choice for Russia, since it is the only way to restore the sanctity of the supreme power."

A Coordinated Campaign?

The amount of television coverage certainly suggests the Kremlin's involvement in -- or, at the least, tacit approval -- of monarchist revivalism. And the state's hand has been revealed in other places. In 2005, a book called "Project Russia," by unnamed authors, appeared on the website of a state security veterans organization in St. Petersburg. The book argues that Russia was a monarchy for 1,000 years and, even after 1917, it became a republic only nominally.

The book harshly criticizes Western-style electoral systems and advocates the gradual revival of Russia's monarchy between 2008 and 2016. It suggests a new monarch could be chosen from among the country's prominent citizens. The author saw Putin's 2004 abolition of gubernatorial elections as a first step in this direction. The book suggests using the media -- movies, documentaries, talk shows, lectures, and newspapers -- to sell the monarchy to the Russian people.

According to Russian media reports, "Project Russia" originated as a seriesof lectures delivered to the cadets at the Federal Security Service (FSB) and military intelligence (GRU) academies. It was later published in a special edition for members of the presidential administration, the government, the army's General Staff, the Duma, top clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian business leaders.

Growing Popular Support

Over the last 10 years, the number of Russians supporting monarchist ideas has risen threefold. A September poll by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) indicated that 19 percent of Russians agreed with restoring the monarchy, but only if an acceptable candidate can be found. Support is higher in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

But only 6 percent of those who favor the monarchy wanted the future guardian of the realm to be a Romanov. The majority thought a monarch should be a prominent public figure chosen in a referendum. In this way, the poll reveals less the prevalence of monarchist ideas than a traditional Russian desire for strong leadership.

Advantages Of Restoration

The idea of monarchy is intrinsically tied up with the notion of succession, which makes it of special interest to Russia's current political elite, for whom that issue is a perpetual problem. Many Putin supporters would relish the idea of an anointed successor rather than have to bother with a presidential election.

There is also an international dimension. Many monarchists believe that reviving the monarchy would bolster Russia's historical ties with Europe. And reviving the monarchy goes hand in hand with the rejection of the 1917 February and October revolutions in Russia. Because those revolutions paved the way for the independence of the Baltic states, Georgia, and Ukraine, among others, revanchists could use the opportunity to revive territorial claims on parts of the former Russian Empire.

But others worry that the monarchist fervor might not stop at mere territorial issues. One Russian humorist quipped recently that the "new Russians," surely the aristocrats of their age, "want to restore the monarchy only in order to restore serfdom."

Earl of Bradford falsely accused (2)

I suppose that it was almost inevitable, but one can only assume that Antony Boada, aided by his legal sidekicks Pitts-Tucker & Co, realised that legal threats were not going to work, see Breaking News, so they decided to resort to verbal attack instead - producing an amazing compilation of lies and innuendo to besmirch my good name.

Strangely they have actually accused me of many things that they are guilty of, and, as for the claim of never having been sued, many people would like to, but seem to have great difficulty in reaching Antony Boada to achieve that.

?Earl Of Bradford Caught In Major Scam - Links To Baronage Press Disclosed

The ?Right Honourable? Richard, 7th Earl of Bradford, has been caught with his pants down and is not quite as ?honourable? as he pretends to be and he is certainly not ?right? at all.

Visitors to our website have already been completely informed about the scam being perpetrated by Baronage Press in selling phony titles and trying to siphon off our clients and the clients of other vendors of titles through intimidation and extortion. Baronage Press has been a consistent and ardent detractor of British Feudal Investments for several years now and falsely claims they do not sell titles?, which they most certainly do. They want you to believe that they only expose sellers of bogus titles and swear they do not have any interest in selling titles of their own.

Our investigators have now found out that no less than the pompous and self-righteous Earl of Bradford (who has no other claim to expertise on titles of nobility other than the fact that he inherited his earldom - he is actually a pub owner with no legal qualification whatsoever) is part of the Baronage Press scam.

Complicity of Bradford in Scam

The next step in the scam is that they received an e-mail or if possible a phone call from one of Baronage Press? front companies such as Pegasus Limited, an offshore Guernsey company, and Hogarth?s wife?s, Patricia, tells them that they got by pure chance, a one in a million coincidence, the very same title which the inquirer had bought - but the ?real? one - and that it is available for a whopping £250,000.

AND GUESS WHO RE-SELLS YOU THE TITLE THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED LEGITIMATELY FOR A TENTH OF THE COST?? YES, THE EARL OF BRADFORD JUST HAPPENS TO HAVE YOUR TITLE AVAILABLE AND BY ?TWISTING? HIS ARM THROUGH THE GOOD GRACES OF BARONAGE PRESS, THE EARL IS WILLING TO SELL IT TO YOU AT THE OUTRAGEOUS PRICE ABOVE MENTIONED.

It is little wonder that when we discovered these facts, the Earl went on the defensive and set up and elaborate website bashing all vendors of titles other than the Manorial Society of Great Britain? which coincidentally Baronage Press also has mentioned as a legitimate vendor of feudal titles.

Of course, quite a number of you have been intelligent enough to hear both sides of the story and once you have known the true facts, you have proceeded to acquire feudal titles through BFI. We thank these wiser and discriminating clients who are not so easily fooled by this trio of bandits who seek to rip the public off in such an outrageous and major way. (Unfortunately the clients are more likely to be sadder and sorry)

It speaks for itself that the Earl of Bradford in his website runs an ?exclusive? interview with the editor of Baronage Press, who of course vouches for everything he says. This clearly shows the relationship between the two

Despite all the defamation we are happy to report that British Feudal Investments has never once been sued in its fifteen year history; (This will not be the case for much longer, the noose is closing hence this desperate attempt to justify himself) nor has it ever had to pay monies to avoid and settle any lawsuits outside of court - something which the Manorial Society consistently has had to do and we have been investigated and cleared by the UK Department of Trade an Industry and even received a letter of appreciation from the Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad for our help in giving evidence and information related to titles fraud on the internet. Our competitors and detractors claim we are just about to land in jail and they have been claiming this on the internet for over two years now? yet BFI is here to stay and our doors remain open for business as usual.

We have joined a class action lawsuit against Baronage Press and the Earl of Bradford and are seeking remedies. Some of our viewers have asked why we do not pursue the matter more aggressively. Our reply is that lawsuits are a very expensive matter and considering the negligible impact these defamations have had upon our business, we have often decided it was not cost-effective and would consume too much of the time we would rather spend serving you, our clients. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the impact of any damage to our business and reputation that Bradford, Baronage Press and their financier Manorial Society may cause or may have caused us and we are taking appropriate legal action. (As usual his words speak louder than his actions!)

It is a sorry matter to see someone like the Earl of Bradford stoop so low and sink to such a degraded form of doing business as he is doing with his website. Most readers by now are pretty sick of his and Baronage Press? modus operandi and indeed one can conclude that the only thing ?noble? about the Earl of Bradford is his title? his behaviour is suitable for the gutter and it is probably brazen, thoughtless, and arrogant actions such as the establishment of his website that led to the popular demand by the British people to terminate his and the other hereditary peers? right to sit and vote in the House of Lords by the present government.

We wish he?d live up to the noble standards he preaches but certainly does not practice.

Additional Warning

Please also note that when you visit the website of Lord Bradford and Baronage Press you get a special treat: a COOKIE? A cookie is planted into your computer without your even knowing it. A cookie traces your every move, letter, e-mail, IM?s, internet searches and browses - even your private banking transactions. Believe it or not Baronage Press in conjunction with their cohort, the Earl of Bradford, have used this private information to extort and blackmail browsers of their website. We know of one case where the duo of Hogarth and Blacker threatened a client in the process of a lawsuit to give to the opposing side full information on all of the client?s bank accounts and properties unless he paid $55,000.

(Evidently, Boada doesn't even know what a "cookie" is, despite the huge number on the Front Page alone of his British Feudal Investments site!! Below is a good site which describes the limits to what a "cookie" can achieve. As you'll see, a "cookie" can NOT access your hard drive, read your emails or follow you around the Internet. They are also not obtained by replying to an email.

[Quote from Webopedia:] Cookies do not act maliciously on computer systems. They are merely text files that can be deleted at any time - they are not plug ins nor are they programs. Cookies cannot be used to spread viruses and they cannot access your hard drive. The cookie will only contain information that you freely provide to a Web site.)

Appalled, the client told us that he had never even seen the Baronage Press website. He did, however, view the website of the Earl of Bradford extensively and did so several times. We think it?s much more than a coincidence that the extortion threat however came from Baronage Press which has long been known to use the cookie device on its victims.

Our private investigators, specialised in computers, confirmed that cookies were being planted by the Bradford website. It becomes further obvious that Bradford passed this information to Baronage Press to complete the hatchet job on the client? If you plan on reviewing their websites please know that this is not the first time we have received this sort of complaint or information about their planting of cookies and subsequent blackmails - also it might do well to remember ?never take candy from a stranger?? especially cookies.?

Having finally caught my breath, I would advise you to treat this with the contempt that it deserves, however, it does demonstrate that the truth must be hitting home and really hurting Antony Boada for him to be reduced to sinking to these depths.

Good, but, with luck, he will be feeling even more uncomfortable soon as the law finally starts to catch up with him.

http://www.faketitles.com/html/mud_slinging.html

Earl of Bradford

Earl of Bradford falsely accused (1)

A letter was sent to us by Pitts-Tucker & Co, dated 26th July 2002, received at VIP Internet two days later, on behalf of their clients Mr Antony Boada and British Feudal Investments, making all sorts of threats of legal action if we did not remove what they considered to be the many defamatory remarks about their clients, and also cease the use of their copyrighted logo.

The logo has been changed, but as far as the rest is concerned, I responded: ?Regarding - British Feudal Investments and Mr Antony Boada: My office in England seems to have received a rather strange letter from you, alleging that we are defaming your client. How can the truth be defamatory? Would your client kindly provide proof that the titles that he is selling, including the many on eBay, are genuine, and obviously I will change my opinion?

Best wishes, Richard, Earl of Bradford - a genuine title?

We also received a further letter, dated the 29th of July, referring to other sections of the site in a similar vein, but specifically about the involvement of Pitts-Tucker & Co, and requesting me to remove any reference to them. I replied by e-mail:

Thank you for your second letter, the receipt of it has been noted. Before I respond further though, could you explain why Pitts-Tucker & Co are misusing the apostille from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to persuade your client's (Mr Boada?s) victims that his bogus titles are recognised by the Crown?

If you have not already viewed the information about British Feudal Investments, I would suggest that you might enjoy reading about their exploits.

Then September the 16th was a red letter day in the history of the Fake Titles website as I was faxed missives from both Pitts-Tucker & Co and Mario Lamar, Boada?s lawyer in Miami. Not too surprisingly Mr Lamar will not allow me to reproduce his varied threats, but I replied as follows: ?The British Feudal Investments logo has been removed from the banner for the British Feudal Investments page on Fake Titles, and also from the Mudslinging page, now it only contains words; surely you cannot object to that. The Hyperlinks have been removed, and we have merely included directions on how to find the British Feudal Investments site.

We would be delighted to received proof that the titles your client sells are genuine, and would then be happy to remove any reference to him and British Feudal Investments from the Fake Titles site, however, given the huge quantity of letters and e-mails of complaint about him that we have in our possession, without having received any that have praised his services, I think that you may find the task a rather difficult one. I also feel that you should examine very carefully the allegations made on your client's site, see Bradford Scam on British Feudal Investments site, as there are several serious accusations against me, most of which are actionable; it would be very easy to prove, for instance, that I am not involved in a Scam to sell a title for GBP 250,000, and there are no 'Cookies' on my site, whereas there are plenty on his.

I should warn you that I have kept a copy of the Bradford Scam page from his website, and would suggest that you stop making any continuing threats of action against me, before I decide to do something about your client's strange and libellous allegations.?

Also if you want to learn more about Antony Boada and Pitts-Tucker & Co and how they operate to part unsuspecting title seekers from their money, do visit the excellently compiled Noble Scams, prepare to be amazed by the depths to which they will sink.

Strangely, having complained vociferously about the actions of eBay in selling not only the spurious Scottish Lairdships, but also more recently the manufactured titles of Boada, I got the following e-mail from eBay on the 31st of July. ?We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to the violation of our site policy below: False or missing contact information - Falsifying or omitting your name, address, and/or telephone number (including use of fax machines, pager numbers, modems or disconnected numbers). Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This prohibition includes the registering of a new account.? Was this a total coincidence? After two days of complaining about it, my registration was re-confirmed.

And on the 21st of August, another one joined the fray, as I received this e-mail from the owner of Noble Titles: ?I hereby give you 7 days due service. Failure to remove all slanderous reference to Noble Titles from your web site will be immediately followed with joint action against you and your Web Host. Furthermore you have infringed international copyright law in using some of our materials in particular our organisations Logo. Finally I expect a full and personal apology for your disgraceful behaviour.?

Finally, a fortnight later, his solicitor Leonard Warner did write a letter threatening action on numerous grounds, to which I replied: ?If your client can prove to our complete satisfaction that he is actually selling genuine Lordships of the Manor, and describing, in the correct fashion, what you can call yourself if you have purchased a Lordship from his company, then we would be very happy to remove any reference to him and his company from the Fake Titles website.? Since that time, the owner of Noble Titles has continually bombarded me with e-mails of complaint; however, he consistently fails to answer the one very simple question of whether he is selling genuine Lordships of the Manor or not.

Leonard Warner produced a final warning letter on the 4th March 2003, giving us one week to change what we said about Noble Titles, stating that they would sue everybody from my solicitor to Cable & Wireless; this got everybody jumping up and down but proved to be as empty a threat as every previous one.

They continue to offer completely made up Lordships of the Manor through eBay on a regular basis, amassing many ten of thousands of pounds a year; apparently the legitimacy of the sale is supported by the Law Society?s Unlimited Liability Insurance - strangely according to the Law Society this does not exist.

On September 10th 2002 Sovereign Classics also joined in the hunt for Bradford with the following illiterate offering:

?We in the process to check your allegations by our law firm and lawyer of peerage law. As a matter of fact you cannot do any allegations without any proof or evidences. That means what you are mentioning on your site that we are offering fake titles is illegal because you have no evidences about what and your partners are doing. You have to understand that you have not the right to say that this person is guilty with any evidences. That's what the law say and if you do so you will get a fine for that. Again that's what the law say. We do a lot of nobility affairs in the Germanic area legally and you give the impression we are doing those things illegal or with fake titles. As I mentioned in a previous email that we are working with a very high ranked German nobility who is very close related to the royal family and that person is more than up set about your wrong allegations. He will discuss with lawyers too and will go after that legally too. Furthermore, we or our lawyers have got evidences about your very close relationship to those companies what you mention as good guys. One of those company is selling titles like the other companies are doing. The other company have the proof of authentic titles. Why you are saying they selling fake titles? We have the very strong feeling that you are doing a not so honest competition battle in the title business. There are some not so nice things what was happened on that end. We have to proof of dealing with original titles at our law firm. We treat all those things in privacy, but we will disclose all those things at court. Further we will sue all those people are trying to attack and doing allegations like you do without evidences. As a matter of fact we will sue for 1 Million GBP. You have your very last chance to clean that mess. If you ignore our message or going further on illegal steps than we will see definitely at court.?

As usual nothing happened. However, they continued to further threaten me; the last offering was in February 2004, this accused me of everything from fraud in Spain to being a well-known drunk, it might be amusing if it weren?t so puerile. Apparently though they have now gone out of business, and have been removed from Fake Titles as a result, somehow I do not feel that they will be missed.

Earl of Bradford