Quote: "Nicola also has links to Thornton-Cleveleys"

Justice for Nikki Bulley

Introduction

This is planned to mark the last but one of the short series of blogs mentioned before (so, the third of four). Time to address a subject which has been (intentionally?) concealed from public attention - out of sight, out of mind. It may partly account for the motivation behind enacting the vicious campaign fixated on Paul Ansell based on lies, half-truths, psychological trickery and emotional manipulation all designed to appeal to the haters. Aimed at detracting attention away from Nikki’s past life before they’d even met.

Throughout the shambolic investigation, those that control mainstream media kept the public entertained with many half-baked stories in addition to real coverage so to provide endless avenues for talking points to occupy the minds of their audiences. As it is so often, it’s what people are steered away from that represents the most valuable insights. I can confidently state that most, myself included, remained oblivious to the important land searches that Lancashire Constabulary carried out, but this isn’t surprising when considering that instructions from up on high to senior ranks within the police were to maintain a public-facing stance of searching nowhere other than the river to support no third-party involvement. Hold this thought, as we’ll return to it.

I’ve written a lot about Paul Ansell’s professional background, detailing how he has always consistently earnt a decent contractual income from blue-chip companies as an Electrical engineer. In the years prior to Paul meeting Nikki, perhaps surprisingly, up until as late as the end of 2007 he continued to live at home in Poulton-le-Fylde with his parents and sister. Time to burst the bubble of those who have been trying ever so hard to deceive you. For this, we need only refer to electoral records that points to how close, albeit private a family the Ansells are. Forget the deceitful efforts to link them to certain less savoury characters to which they share a name with. ‘Mark Ansell’ who has notably appeared in the local news for all the wrong reasons is not family.

Let’s go back twenty years to 2002, the year when Mr and Mrs Ansell bought their modest home in Poulton-le-Fylde for £95K where they lived together as a family until it was sold during 2006 for £182K. This was to enable a move to a property literally around the corner for £160K where Paul and his sister continued to live with their parents. A probable reason for this move may have been to take the opportunity to clear any remaining mortgage by freeing up nearly £20K to pay it down or to clear it entirely. This remains the modest family home the parents continue to live in to this day. It wasn’t until late 2007 that Paul bought a £115K maisonette of his own, still only a matter of yards from his parents home, but at this time still exercising good financial discipline as a reasonably well-paid Electrial engineer as we know. Rolling forward a few years now, after Paul had met Nikki and subsequently moved in with her at Larbreck Mews, it’s clear from the records that his sister moved into his now vacant maisonette, in which she continues to live to this day.

Here I must take an educated guess, however in my opinion the timing of the sale of the maisonette in 2018 just one month before Paul and Nikki bought their family home in Inskip to accommodate their two daughters growing up, must have been to get approval for the new mortgage required. The sale must have been to his sister since she continued to live there throughout this period. Consider it was sold at less than market value, significantly less than he paid for it, it demonstrates how close he remains to his family, both his father and sister who I believe to be artists.

Before you switch off and fall asleep at how desperately uninteresting this all is, would it come as a surprise that by the time Paul finally left home for his maisonette just around the corner from his parents, that Nikki had been living with her then husband for not less than six years?

Time to understand the background to Nikki’s ex-husband (Simon Booth), to subject it to the same level of scrutiny in order to better understand why so little is known.

To those that I apply the nickname of Team Mind Juice (e.g. the whole bloody lot of them), they best prepare to scramble and get busy creating more wishy-washy content, repetition and new distractions to mislead their audiences. This one’s for them, as the truth to what happened to Nikki will eventually be uncovered. That much is assured.

To add, I consider that I write objectively in debunking the fakery and deceivers, as well as shining a light on genuine information in a fair, even-handed manner that allows an audience to determine what is and what isn’t important. This two-pronged approach can work to defeat the sort of futility you might otherwise experience were you to seek and fetch water with a hole in the bucket. Here’s a lighter example as a metaphor to convey how it’s never been in my nature to run around in circles, but rather to delve where many others dare not to find the relevant answers to questions.

Those paying attention know I strive to reach as many as possible, but may have missed that I’ve never once been anything other than entirely respectful to anyone who either asks a question or has objectively addressed any aspect of anything I have written at any time. However, in equal measure those that wilfully seek to derail the destination towards truth and justice (either intentionally, or just programmed to remain unaware of their unconscious state) will receive short thrift every single time without exception. This is the blog I expect to separate the wheat from the chaff by way of responses but I’m fully prepared.

Fluke Hall, Pilling

This old postcard and image is one of few references that can be found on the internet about this impressive property. Originally conceived as a grand private residence the house and estate fell into decay during the post WW2 years and was badly in need of signficant restoration in the late 1990s. Eventually, it was the Cartmell family that dedicated about fifteen years from the year 2000 restoring it after it had been a Nursing Home for a brief period, thereby saving the hall. If you’d like to read a little more here is a link below.

The history of Fluke Hall

To return to the previous mention of land searches in the introduction, most of you may recall from media reports that Lancashire Constabulary deployed officers to search the premises of Penny Fletcher’s Wyreside Farm Caravan Park on Monday 13^th February. The day for this should of course been the day of Nikki’s disappearance in normal circumstances, but this isn’t the reason for bringing it up. What virtually no-one knows about is the preceding day (Sunday 12^th) police officers set a police helicopter down in a hay field in Preesall much to the shock of the owner - as pictured - to search outbuildings and woods, as well as deploying police and search teams at nearby Fluke Hall. This didn’t get the press attention you might imagine and any details of which will not be available to the public. 🧐

The reason this is all the more interesting is it has been home to Simon Booth since June 2021.

I challenge any critical thinker to be satisfied with the bland media description of Nikki being ‘briefly married to local businessman Simon Booth’, knowing there was covert police search attention at this isolated mansion. Paul Ansell has received considerable attention, so must now Simon Booth.

For at least four years prior to 2021, he’d been living with his fiancée (Jodie Prenger) at this sprawling property below, with sale exchange and completion simultaneous with the purchase of Fluke Hall. It’s proven impossible to find any reference to Fluke Hall having been put up for sale in the first place.

However, the link below is to the video tour courtesy of Armitstead Barnett estate agents that marketed the previous property for sale at offers over £650,000. Very nice indeed, but up the property ladder he goes.

Property (Guild Farm) for sale

To put Paul & Nikki’s detached family house in Inskip into perspective, find another million pounds from behind the sofa and you’d still fall short of the Fluke Hall purchase price.

Simon Booth (‘businessman’)

What does ‘businessman’ actually mean and what does his professional background reveal?

Prior to March 2012 he’d held a managerial position for ten years within a UK national car leasing company, so in steady employment and recipient of a regular and predictable monthly income that I’d estimate to be well above national average earnings - somewhere similar to those of Paul. However, April 2012 is when it gets interesting.

He must have decided to take the plunge and to go it alone by seeking to set up his own (car leasing) business - Astute Motoring Ltd. This was no mean feat in a crowded industry, marking the beginning of the need to forego any steady income, to apply entrepreneurial skills and hard graft to build a business from scratch and generate sufficient from which to earn a living from.

Astute Motoring Ltd and Astute Fleet Ltd were registered in April 2012. While Astute Fleet Ltd has a website and was intended to be a complimentary business offering to his business car leasing customers (essentially it’s software designed to help small businesses maintain a compliant fleet), it remains a dormant company to this day having generated no revenue. After a couple of challenging years, he incorporated an additional company Astute Funding Ltd in August 2014 as part of successfully gaining authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority from January 2015 to carry on business as a finance intermediary (a credit broker).

There are strict rules enforced in the business-to-consumer finance space that places an obligation on a business to make transparent commission that they receive as part of their commercial agreements with their suppliers. In other words, those that actually provide the cars to Astute Motoring as a middleman to the end user on lease contract.

To explain without overcomplicating it, UK consumer lending recently hit it’s highest level in June 2023 since April 2018 at £1.7 billion borrowed, £1.0 billion of which is personal and car loans. Banks and finance houses like car loans as if you don’t pay, the car will be repossessed! Astute Motoring as a credit broker own nothing themselves, but act as the intermediary for the legally-binding lease contract between end customer and the provider of the vehicle/finance. For many this is the only route to being able to afford use of a car for a fixed period, but ownership of the car remains with the bank / finance house. The largest vehicle leasing company in the UK today is Lex Autolease - but this is after all but a bank in simple terms (a brand owned by Lloyds Bank).

Car leasing has always been a tough industry with slim margins, but nevertheless Astute Motoring achieved critical mass after a couple of years and remained economically viable operating from small office premises on a local Business Park. Through advertising, such as striking a deal as club partner to Fleetwood Town football club from 2017 for example, it appears the business may have previously had a few employees at one time. However, there are indications the business wasn’t in a position to continue to thrive, potentially suffering in my opinion from insufficient volume in a tough market. One look at the existing Astute Motoring website suggests the original business is no longer viable as envisaged, with the small office presence cited at the Business Park having not served as a base for more than eighteen months.

Back in early 2019 he made the decision to invest in and take over an existing business of some fifteen years (Veloce Wheels Ltd) from the previous owner. In essence, this involved acquiring a brand name and the tooling to manufacture specialist alloy wheels mainly marketed for used Porsche cars. Launching a newly-designed website, creating a Facebook page and providing an online shopfront via Ebay to market this new venture - this represented the quintessential cottage industry if ever there was one. However, with no updated FB posts for months and very little engagement prior to this, the financial accounts suggest the business to be technically insolvent with any revenue from sales required to pay down company creditors.

Somewhat inexplicably, the 2020 lockdown followed up the next year with a colossal step up the property ladder and re-registering of limited companies to his now current home of Fluke Hall in February 2022 has worked miracles. This from a social media post mid-2022, announcing the Facebook page for Astute Motoring is back up and running which has since showcased the occasional fully-loaded used Range Rover and high-end sports car for resale. How it’s possible to have ‘a load of Land Rovers’ as mentioned is a mystery.

All by themselves the vehicles suggest an interesting network of connections, the movers and shakers of Blackpool perhaps, former owners of which could possibly tell many a story. While this enterprise as a useful sideline may dazzle many, the more astute (pardon the pun) will be sufficiently curious to wish to look deeper. After all, imagine if this was Paul Ansell, there’d be endless hours of Youtube videos from deceitful ‘content creators’ (not to forget duplicitious blogger Mickey too) that would run for months on end, so to ensure their audience would never hear the end of it.

However, things get even less transparent. Turning to his LinkedIn business profile Simon Booth claims to have held the post of Managing Director for Envirosphere Ltd since April 2022 - a business that allegedly supplies ‘applications to improve air quality.’

A busy fellow however, this he is not! The company by that name is the very smallest of limited companies and has been registered and run by an entirely different gentleman elsewhere in the country more than the last twenty years. On the surface he appears to be doing a “Marianna Spring” - this a reference to her being widely reported in the media earlier this month for lying on her CV when having applied for a former role.

Taking a closer look confirms that he has to be alluding to a limited company he incorporated in the name of Envirosphere3 Ltd in August 2019. However, this remains a non-trading dormant company that hasn’t even been re-registered with others to Fluke Hall. The only tenuous internet clue (as below), the link of which states that the domain is not registered to a website🧐. If you can’t find the very existence of a business how can it possibly be expected to pass the red face test as being legit. I’d be only too delighted to revise my observations if something (anything!) were to show otherwise.

For completeness, his final part-time gig is involvement since the beginning of 2023 acting on a freelance basis as representative for Golf Credit Ltd, a small company dedicated to working with golf clubs in the UK to provide a low-cost facility for their members to pay their annual subscriptions in monthly instalments.

Having set out to take an objective approach, the only conclusion in my opinion that can be drawn is the clear intention to maintain an illusion as a successful businessman (he identifies as ‘multiple business owner & director’), whereas all indication points to the contrary. Lots of flash, but no way to account for the cash. A modest, but highly unreliable income from month to month is hard to square away with huge investment in property requiring significant running costs. Perhaps the lifestyle can be explained away by him being a kept-man?

However, before turning to his fiancée to establish if this could be the answer I remind you of a drive through the area that took me via another accountancy practice of interest - the one which Simon Booth appointed during either 2019 or 2020 to prepare and manage his business accounts. An experienced accountant, based in the outskirts of Blackpool that will also turn out to be the link to an uncanny coincidence and unexpected connection that leads right back to Allotment Lane itself (when we get there!).

Blackpool (Preston Old Road) - accountancy services

The first observation from the photo below, are similarities to the prior premises from Lytham St Annes. There’s no visible entrance, no buzzer nor door at all, so any access has to either be through the (West Coast Motor Services) garage to the right hand side, or else beyond the metal gate down the left side of the building. It’s safe to say visitors are encouraged to be strictly by appointment only. There’s the one highly visible streetside advertisment board (S G Accountants Ltd).

There’s a couple of other similarities between the two practices that I’ll return to.

S G Accountants Ltd

This was the main practice was set up in 2009 by Mr Steven Gough who, as with Mr Seed, appears not to market himself much, if at all. The limited company to which the sign refers however was dissolved in 2015, which will be the reason why filed business accounts for Simon Booth are noted as being prepared by SG Accountants (a trading name of Mr Gough in his capacity as sole trader). As at beginning of September there were about 250 active companies registered from this address, with a further 150 previously registered and since dissolved. Otherwise it’s about as clear as mud, though it’s known he’s joint owner of West Coast Motor Services at the same premises; where his business partner has run the garage for the last fifteen years while he runs his accountancy business from the offices above supported by up to eight employees. The main legal entity through which all or most of the accounting services have been run in recent years, registered in both his and his wife’s name, is that of Eximietas Accountancy Ltd - a company incorporated since 2019.

With a few strings to his bow, he’s also joint shareholder and director of BMA Accountants Ltd with Labour Councillor for the Talbot Ward, Mark Smith, a firm that is also run from the same premises above. Councillor Mark Smith is current Chair of the Board for Blackpool Council-owned Sandcastle Waterpark, the UK’s largest Indoor Waterpark on Blackpool Promenade, as well as recently being Director of Blackpool Council-owned Winter Gardens entertainment venue until May 2023 and also Treasurer and a director these last five years for Blackpool Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

Unquestionably, Mr Gough’s a successful businessman evidenced by the purchase of an impressive family home in the nearby countryside in November 2018 for £760K and has useful connections. Having a good relationship with Simon Booth, it’s quite the coincidence that he too has diversified and just this last month set up two further companies of his own from scratch, one of which is dedicated to the sale of second-hand luxury cars. It’s unknown if this has started trading, but who knew there’s this booming requirement and business opportunity for the remarketing of luxury cars that is all the rage.

Two further similarities

As I mentioned about the two practices, for the more curious, this relates first to a particular now defunct business on the one hand and then to the concept of a principal accountancy practice with the association to a supporting bookkeeping services business on the other.

Roman James Estates Ltd transferred it’s registered company address to Mr Seed’s Lytham St Annes offices in September 2020 - an estate agent that based itself from a high street location in Whitegate Drive, Blackpool. This business has since had a liquidator appointed (June 2023) but not before it had been reported late 2022 that Propertymark (the UK's leading professional body for estate agents) had opened compliance cases against a small number of members following the latest HMRC publication of businesses who failed to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. It’s understood that Roman James Estates was hit by a fine of nearly £25K for failing to comply with the ‘Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017’ during the period from January to March 2022. This marked the beginning of the end for Roman James Estate agents.

By coincidence, this very month Mr Gough has re-registered much of his portfolio of clients from his practice to the same address in Blackpool vacated by Roman James Estates. The other interesting observation is a penchant to have an associated bookkeeping business run by a previous prior young accounts assistant. As with Mr Seed and the creation of Tiger Bookkeeping Services that I referenced in the prior blog, the existing sizeable premises on the main road formerly occupied by Roman James Estates Ltd is now being occupied and accommodates a brand-new accountancy firm (trading as KG Accountancy). The legal entity, KG Accounting & Bookkeeping Services Ltd, was incorporated June 2023 with the sole director and shareholder one of Mr Gough’s former young account assistants - the address to which his portfolio of clients referenced above have been re-registered. While I consider myself to have reasonable business acumen I fail to understand a fresh, new front of house unknown accountancy firm behind which metaphorical veil sits a long-established business of Mr Gough. Many businesses proudly trade off their brand and reputation to retain and grow business, however this approach is quite the opposite by magicking up a new front of house which is essentially a one-woman show from outward appearances.

Returning to Nikki Bulley

To not digress further and to stay on track, what relevance might any of this have to Nikki?

Paul Ansell’s life before Nikki was reasonably ordinary, dare I say a bit dull in contrast to a man she’d lived with for no less than nine years in total that has shown to have a more colourful life. The move to Fluke Hall mid-2021 was uncharacteristically low key, with it sure to have slid under the radar to most people other than to those in their close-knit circle of friends. However, there’s every reason to suspect that it will not have passed Nikki by unnoticed, all the more so if you consider who her least favourite person in the world might have been.

There’s something you’re unlikely to know as yet and I’m not referring to Simon Booth as this least favourite person. The situation requires that we take a closer look at their prior relationship and his now current fiancée, to lay out the facts as they are.

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned

It’s public knowledge that Jodie Prenger was first engaged to be married in a short-lived relationship that lasted a matter of weeks during 2008. This was around the time of the BBC-produced television talent show ‘I’d Do Anything’ that she went on to win - the search for an unknown lead to play Nancy in the West End revival of the musical Oliver!. Later the same year, having moved to London from Blackpool to play the role of Nancy, she met and later cohabited with her then boyfriend until mid-2010.

Back again in the tabloids in a published article at the end of 2010, the media published the headline: “Jodie Prenger finds love at last” - with this glamorous photo and her quoted saying: ‘I've known him as a friend for a long while and we started dating about six months ago. He's wonderful, sensitive and it just hits you like a ton of bricks when you meet someone who ticks all the right boxes’ [him in this context, is Simon Booth].

Naturally, there’s no reference to Mrs Nicola Booth but there is no chance whatsoever that the two weren’t known to each other for all the wrong reasons.

Nikki and Simon first started living together in 2001, Nikki having moved into his terraced property that was also in Poulton-le-Fylde. The following year in 2002 it was sold and together they bought a detached new-build property in Thornton-Cleveleys where they continued to live for a further four years before they married. Then as a married couple they continued to live here for a further four years, before he left the home they shared (at some point in 2010). Nikki carried on living at this address alone for a further two years before they divorced.

Synchronicity is seldom more striking than the fact that when Nikki’s parents relocated from Essex and bought the detached house that they still live in to this day, this very house was but three doors down from the new-build home Simon and Nikki were living in while still a happily-married couple in September 2007. In addition, her then single sister Louise Bulley, lived within shouting distance having moved into a nearby rented flat herself in 2006. She stayed here for up to four years before moving to Larbreck Mews, where Nikki subsequently also moved to a couple of years later.

It could readily be construed that a lot has been hidden from sight, so consequently given the commitment in seeking the truth we must soldier on.

Professional background - Jodie Prenger

A well-known actress and singer with a theatre career that launched in 2008, it’s standard practice to make use of a personal service company, in the same way that Paul Ansell does as previously explained. This was the time when having landed her first sizeable theatre contract she therefore had cause to set up Nanjo Ltd for this purpose. I suggest the entertainment industry can make for a more complicated arrangement than other vocations, greater scope for tax-deductible expenses for example, so employing the services of an accountant to draft and file accounts remains essential. The company accounts are as you might expect until present day, until irregularities in the latest accounts filed for the accounting year ended August 2022. Just like that from the prior year’s balance sheet of 2021 carried forward, exactly £120K seemingly vanished from the company’s net worth. 🤔 It can be seen from Companies House that the registered office address for Nanjo Ltd has been transferred to Mr Gough’s practice in January 2021 from her previous Blackpool-based firm of accountants, albeit the previous firm of accountants continue to be referenced in the accounts filed. All quite strange from the perspective of anyone familiar with accountancy and finance.

Ms Prenger formed three other companies in the last few years, neither of which amounted to anything significant having since been dissolved. The most interesting of these being Theatre Stay Ltd by virtue of which this company was re-registered to Mr Gough’s practice in July 2021. On paper it has remained a dormant company throughout, never traded and an application for the company to be struck off the register was made in December 2022 (with the company then dissolved in May 2023).

Objectively, while a talented and well-paid performer, it’s a stretch to envisage Simon Booth being a kept-man and an extravagant lifestyle in my opintion requires either a huge lottery win or else a wealthy benefactor. If there’s one other person who may have taken a much closer look for reasons that speak for themselves, then we now also know who this would have been. This is but an observation.

Skippool Creek car park - forensics

A worthwhile momentary diversion, given this car park is but two miles from where the Bulley family have lived for twenty years. The search took place on 3^rd February, more than a week before the subsequent searches at Fluke Hall and Wyreside Farm Caravan Park. Might this prove relevant after all?

The cover Lancashire Constabulary hid behind referring to a suspicious vehicle was plainly ridiculous. A single car parked in a…… car park…… is not suspicious, nor for that matter can a vehicle be called suspicious for being a vehicle. People are suspicious, not vehicles. It’s feasible to make associations from certain types of vehicles, for example the pictures of those above one could associate with drug dealers, pimps or footballers based on an ostentatious display of wealth and poor taste. However, any more basic form of relatively affordable transport is just that. The vehicle, such as the blue van that was granted access to the closed Rawcliffe Road to access the crime scene before leaving shortly thereafter as the real CSI police van turned up, is suspicious. That’s because of it being in the wrong place at the wrong time, not the fact that it’s a blue van.

Back to Skippool, there was only a small forensic team on site but for a change it was nonetheless temporarily a genuine taped-off crime scene to allow them to collect items of interest in small plastic bags from the far end of the car park. From video footage there’s no possibility that this represented the location of a body dump, however it’s possible that Nikki’s personal possessions may have been discarded before a tip-off being provided to the police. Only speculation, but reinforced from the observation that the very next day was the start of extensive media reports on the prospect of the police retreiving data from her Fitbit. That's all that can be said on the incident without drifting off into the land of make-believe, but the location and it’s proximity to Thornton-Cleveleys is highly suggestive.

Wrapping up

‘Links to Thornton-Cleveleys’ can be better explained with the Bulley family having lived in the small village for more than twenty years, first with Nikki herself when she and Simon Booth bought a home together there.

In the most absurd police investigation and at times theatrical scripted show, that led up to the ridiculously staged and fake discovery of a body, it’s an unfortunate coincidence that Nikki’s former nemesis happens to be a West End theatre star of all things.

It’s unknown what triggered one of the few genuine efforts by Lancashire Police to seemingly follow-up on leads away from their repetitive public communication policy centred exclusively on the river. However, the aforementioned land search bears the hallmark of having fallen into the media blackout category.

In addition to quite the lifestyle and the hint of aspects couched in secrecy, there’s a further startling coincidence by way of a link through their enigmatic accountant to a certain resident of Allotment Lane. A resident who has a bearing on Nikki’s disappearance Friday 27^th in a way that shall be explained in the next blog.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the great Arthur Conan Doyle:

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”