Property boss who hid fraud prison past resigns

A property boss who hid his criminal past behind a new identity has resigned from his company following a BBC investigation.

Scott El Paraiso, who was jailed under his original name of Adam Minett over a £25,000 fraud in 2009, had been running Merseyside-based property firm Urban Evolution Property Management.

The Merseyside-based firm was accused by leaseholders in a Liverpool student block of exploiting fire safety concerns to try to get them to sell for less than they paid for their flats - something Mr El Paraiso and firm denied.

In a statement this week, Urban Evolution said it had been the victim of a "smear campaign", that Mr El Paraiso, 41, was stepping down to focus on representing leaseholders elsewhere, and that the company was planning a rebrand.

In a statement published on its website, Urban Evolution claimed it had been attacked for "putting lives before profit".

Its co-founder Ross Spencer said: "As a result of this smear campaign launched against us, we plan to rebrand the company in the coming days and Scott El Paraiso has decided to resign from his duties.

"Scott has multiple high value court cases underway representing over a thousand leaseholders. He still has their support and will continue to represent leaseholders across the country until these cases have come to a favourable conclusion."

Mr El Paraiso and Mr Spencer's company was accused by leaseholders in Arndale House, London Road, of exaggerating fire safety issues to pressure them into selling their units.

In Mr Spencer's statement about Mr El Paraiso's resignation, he maintained that Arndale House was "unsafe" and "high risk".

Earlier this month, Merseyside Fire And Rescue Service signed off remedial works undertaken by its new management firm, Haymarket, as complete.

A BBC investigation found that while Mr El Paraiso, from Wirral, claimed he might be able to bring in an Omani investor who had bought flats in a nearby building, the flats in the other building were actually bought by a network of companies controlled by Mr El Paraiso and Mr Spencer.

Mr El Paraiso also said that his Mr Al-Huseini had not actually bought any properties in the end, and that his name was being removed from the Companies House filings

A former student tenant of the company, Hamza Al-Huseini, told the BBC he believed his identity had been stolen in order to make it look as though dozens of companies controlled by Mr Spencer and Mr El Paraiso were actually owned by a foreign investor when they were buying up properties for as little as £5,000 each.

In response to the allegations, Mr El Paraiso claimed he had changed his name for personal reasons, not to hide his criminal past.

He and Urban Evolution also said students had only been advised to move out of Arndale House for their own safety, and that leaseholders had failed to pay for repairs to make it safe - which the leaseholders dispute. They said leaseholders were told of the possibility of selling their flats as a way for them to withdraw their investment once it was clear government funding to fix cladding issues was denied.

They also claimed the Mr Al-Huseini they had been working with was a different one to their former tenant and he did not end up buying the flats in the nearby building.

They claimed Mr Al-Huseini's name would be removed from Companies House filings, but did not respond to requests for evidence of his existence.

Ahead of the BBC publishing its investigation into Mr El Paraiso and Urban Evolution, he offered up testimonials from leaseholders at Sovereign Newbank House in Sheffield, to whom he had denied having a former identity or criminal record when asked in 2022.

The BBC has seen evidence that Mr El Paraiso has since told them that "in the very distant past [he] made some errors of judgement" and that he was upset at having his "name dragged through the mud".

He also repeated his assertion that the Omani investor he had been dealing with was a different one to the person the BBC spoke to.

Companies House has now removed Mr Al-Huseini's name from documents indicating that he owned a company of which Mr El Paraiso and Mr Spencer are directors.

It told Mr Al-Huseini the company, BC Owner Holdings Ltd, had "no proper basis" for including his name on its paperwork.

Companies House has told the BBC that making false statements about who controls companies is a criminal offence.

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