eBay

Some of the Dodgier Titles That We Have Come Across

In the course of creating Fake Titles, we have come across some absolutely ludicrous claims from purchasers of ‘titles’, as well as from the sellers; unfortunately some behave in ways that bring little credit to themselves and therefore we felt that it might help you if we highlighted some of those.

‘Lord and Lady’ Bjorn and Maria Teksnes (Shropshire)

This couple own Old Colehurst Manor in Shropshire, a wonderful medieval manor house near Market Drayton that they have lovingly restored, and now hold weddings, residential stays and dinners there. Alas, they also decided to ‘advance’ themselves and bought a name change through ‘Lord’ Robert Farmer; apart from ensuring that they are held up to ridicule by everybody that knows about their sudden elevation, sadly they seem to have acquired a new overbearing manner.

They put Old Colehurst up for sale, but have since removed it from the market, and at the time they insisted that all the staff at Savills, the selling agents, called them Milord and Milady, and the same at Wrekin College where their daughter was at school.

Sir Robert Cowley, 2nd Baron Ardwhallan

Though he has apparently dropped his Barony, it might be interesting to find out the source of his Knighthood as Buckingham Palace and The British Government do not seem to have any record of it. However, he does seem to move around quite a lot in Australia, never staying in one place for long enough to create any permanent friendships, though strangely rather a lot of people seem to be quite glad to say farewell to him.

His associates, such as Warren Clarke Anderson, seem to also boast a similar lack of credibility; Warren claims a “distinguish (sic) [BBA] Hons in International Business Studies, [MBA] Banking & Finance (UK) The Regents University of San Moritz”. The same sort of qualification could be yours for around $500! While Sir or sometimes Dr Andrew Haberfield should be treated with similar caution, especially if any of them offer to raise money for you, but want to be paid an ‘up front’ fee.

I am sure the regulatory authorities would be very interested to hear from anybody with information about ‘Sir’ Robert Cowley, particularly if you have paid him a fee but never succeeded in getting your loan.

Anyone who has dealt with his company Investment Suisse, which he claims is a major Swiss financial institution, might be interested to learn that “Investment Suisse is not authorized by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA (nor the former SFBC, FINMA’s predecessor). Investment Suisse is not a legitimate Swiss company, nor is it a bank and has no physical presence in Switzerland”, according to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

It apparently operates out of a well-known accommodation address on London’s Piccadilly, which seems unusual for such a large financial institution, however, usefully, it does house an escort service among a plethora of other companies.

You might also like to study his involvement with the strange Lichtenburg Foundation and the amazing Princess Maya, Baroness de Haynau, apparently ‘Baron’ Cowley is a Minister of State for the Principality of Lichtenburg, though the place only seems to exist in someone’s imagination, I am sure though that their aims are purely charitable as stated. You might further like to find out more about another gentleman connected to the Foundation, Lord Hankins of Ravensburn, his title seems to have as much credibility as ‘Sir’ Robert’s; they tried to hold a charity dinner in Queensland, Australia at A$1000 a plate to raise funds, but unfortunately for them there were so few takers that it got called off.

Latest News: ‘Sir’ Robert has now threatened me with a Notice of Intention to Commence Criminal Prosecution, however, he seems to have joined forces with a gentleman called Bernie O’Brien, using the notepaper of the Affordable Legal Company. Bernie’s credibility unfortunately seems to be about as great as ‘Sir’ Robert’s, you might be interested to see his recent performance on YouTube, in which he was questioned about where money that investors had given to him for producing business loans had disappeared to.

Lord or sometimes Sir Charles Buchanan Turnor

If you come across a Knightship for sale in an auction, then do not attempt to buy it. Unfortunately on any number of occasions the unwary have purchased ‘Lord’ Turnor’s Field Knightships of the Plantagenet Toxophilites, quite often paying several thousand pounds, including Ian Whyman of South Yorkshire, MD of a demolition company, who coughed up a hefty £7,000 for two at an auction in Malmesbury held by Hilditch Auctioneers, who really didn’t bother to do much checking.

Lord Charles lives in the grandly named East Barkwith Manor in Lincolnshire, actually a small cottage, but seemed unwilling to talk when approached by a reporter from The People. Do avoid him like the plague, and please report any Knightships that you spot being offered for sale either to me or directly to the police.

The Right Hon the Lord Mitford

The most worrying fact about His Lordship’s Website - apparently not live at present, pending a redesign - is that "Lord Mitford maintains a small collection of books related to genealogy and the peerage and in his spare time conducts genealogy and peerage research". Help! Talk about the blind leading the blind.

Though he may well own the two Manorial Lordships of the Mitford family - he is not able to call himself The Right Hon the Lord Mitford, just Mr Mark Mitford, Lord of the Honour of Mitford, and Lord of the Manor of Molesden; and certainly not The Right Hon, the use of that is reserved for peers of the rank of Baron, Viscount or Earl, and Members of Her Majesty’s Privy Council.

A special word of warning about eBay, as they are selling all sorts of ‘fake titles’, but state that they take no responsibility for their authenticity, thus providing marvellous opportunities for sellers - so ‘Buyer Beware’, after you have been cheated out of your money, you will have no right of redress against eBay.

Despite an almost continuous flow of e-mails between us, they have failed to take action in almost every instance; so watch out for most of the micro-nations under the sun selling their ‘titles’ along with various other well known fake title merchants.

This position was described very well by a respondent to Fake Titles: “Through the engagement registration and disclosures for parties buying and selling, eBay legally warrants its own representations then passes through all liabilities. The only actionable parties are the buyer and seller.

eBay does not even have obligations as a bulletin board (conveyor of electronic media). As long as they do not post seller notices for firearms, human organs, nor other explosive ordinance or regulated substances, they are completely within the United States Code of Law.

More is the pity. Many people are currently exploiting eBay and other on-line auction sites to firewall themselves from reflective tort liability or other legal exposures.”

A typically complacent, but always very polite and meaningless, response - and I have a proverbial barrow full - will run along the lines of:

“Thank you for taking the time to write to us in relation to your concern about fake items on our site.

eBay shares your concern in such matters. This is why we work very closely with major copyright holders under our VeRO Programme. We also are happy to work with agencies such as the Police and Trading Standards.

Please remember that eBay acts only as a venue for sales. As we never take possession of the items offered for sale, we cannot authenticate them. We ask that sellers list items honestly and accurately, and that bidders ask any pertinent questions before placing a bid.

We do not permit the listing of fake items on eBay: however, we can only use the information provided within the listing text, as we do not have the item itself. This may mean that we cannot remove items reported to us, as the content of the listing is not sufficient evidence of an infringement. To retain the consistency and integrity of our policies, we must act only on actual listing evidence.

We do not police the site: this is why you may see active items which are in violation, and we encourage you to report those to us. We instead use reports from concerned users and rights owners.”

Though Andrew Easton of Burke’s Peerage has also written to them, they have failed to take any action.

Any sensible person should boycott eBay completely until they clean up their act, as clearly they are only interested in how much money they make, and are not concerned about their clients being ‘ripped off’. So, don’t blame me if you purchase a ‘title’ through eBay and find - inevitably - that it is not a real one, you have been warned.