Where does organised crime fit in? (Part One)

Justice for Nikki

Introduction

This is a question that ought to be top of mind so the intention is to stimulate insights that’ll enable more connections to be made, connections that will lead to exposing the reasons behind it all.

It’s a good time for the community of genuine freethinkers seeking justice for Nikki (and her two daughters) to build on the firm base of undeniable facts as they have always been. While waiting for the College of Policing to implicate themselves in their autumn report into the police investigation, the time is ripe to shine the light beyond the immediate setting and into the murky surroundings of Lancashire.

The prime focus for all the false narratives has naturally centred around the peculiar village of St Michaels-on-Wyre itself. This was reinforced by the controlled media concentrating attention on friends of Nikki from the primary school (where she was last seen dropping off her children) and on her long-term partner Paul Ansell. However, with the time and place of her abduction and much of what was to follow planned long in advance, it’s no surprise that the main figures responsible are not those that were present on the day of her disappearance. Those that were present are only pawns who were manipulated to achieve their ends.

Many struggle with this concept but it was all planned in the knowledge that the public can be easily moulded to believe any which ruse they choose to promote from time to time. Some are still to this very day following social media themes about the nearby river and how her body was mysteriously discovered twenty-three days later by a fraudulent psychic medium in a blaze of publicity🥴. It’ll always be this way. The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead. No matter.

Planning behind the abduction itself was always simplicity itself, as the only prerequisite when you strip away irrelevancies was to ensure control over the CCTV feeds down Allotment Lane (at no.1 and at no.3), to prevent recorded timestamped images from that day from being made available. Otherwise, in addition to a few compliant participants who in my opinion are now neck-deep in a situation they never had the first idea at the outset as to what was to come, there’s the small number of easily-duped locals that make up the ensemble after the event itself to complete the shocking cover-up that has endured for so long.

Second only to the staged performance around discovery of the body, the sham inquest was the most revealing and incriminationg aspect of all. Their scripted drama proved beyond any reasonable doubt what couldn’t have previously been evidenced from that first morning. The events of 27^th January had been well-concealed until the end of June, but then all at once the pawns were exposed and must now privately wonder if they’ll be subject to investigative questioning in due course.

Turning to organised crime, there are two aspects that have been simmering on a back-burner in my mind until now:

• (1) Firstly, what evidence is there to show that crime syndicates have the necessary influence to make the police force dance to their tune, whether directly or indirectly? (Part One post)

• (2) Secondly, who from Nikki’s background and social circle can be directly linked to a crime syndicate, be it past or present? (Part Two post, that will follow)

Both questions are relevant for obvious reasons and so now to scratch away at the thin veneer of the surface to reveal what lies beneath. The two questions intentionally remain independent from each other, in part due to the complexity involved. Best to manage things in bite-sized chunks that can be reviewed later.

For emphasis by way of end to this introduction, I make no inference from the following as to there existing a link to the fate that befell Nikki. However, without delving into the haystack the needle won’t be found or in other words, without casting the net sufficiently wide to find the dots along the way there won’t be the necessary dots from which to join it all up.

Everything will emerge in good time much to the disillusionment of remaining frauds on Youtube, Twitter and their lead establishment blogger who entered the fray at the close of the disastrous inquest for damage limitation purposes. They have now become painfully obvious across the platforms even to some of the slowest learners.

Organised crime - and selective policing

First, a walk down memory lane. Out of the blue during Feb 2020 news agencies were behind a spate of media reporting of a Mafia crime empire that had been run out of Lancashire some fifteen years prior. The BBC, Daily Mail, The Sun and all the regional papers to name a few all got in on the action.

Attached below just the one article from the BBC itself on Gennaro Panzuto, so to keep it mainstream and reach and inform as wide an audience as possible for the initial mise en scène.

Lancashire and the Mafia (BBC, Feb 2020)

Gennaro Panzuto (mafia boss)

To complement the article above, the Camorra are a powerful criminal organisation originating in Naples dating back to the 17th Century - a structure made up of individual clans each headed by a boss, all involved in drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering. Panzuto, a boss of one of the most feared clans (Piccirillo) was directly linked to one of the hits during ongoing mob wars in Naples so had to flee the country to lay low. During the course of his dealings, Panzuto had forged links with an organised crime group in Lancashire via a scam that involves shipping shoes into Naples without paying any VAT (known as ‘carousel fraud’), shoes that the Camorra could sell on and undercut legitimate traders. Panzuto reached out to his associates in the British underworld and was dutifully picked up on his arrival at the airport on British soil during early 2006 by a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. Lancashire’s racketeers were eager to meet the mafia boss in person.

Panzuto subsequently embarked on an ‘interesting’ partnership with his British hosts, initially living on a caravan park before renting a semi-detached property in Garstang, all the while continuing to direct his mafia clan operations back in Naples. At one stage he held a summit of Mafia bosses at his house in Garstang, disguised as a family barbecue. Eventually, the Italian authorities in collaboration with the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) caught up with him and he was arrested locally in May 2007. Panzuto was extradited to Italy to face life imprisonment for murder. He’d been arrested less than ten miles from the home of Marisa Merico, the daughter of the mafia boss Emilio Digiovine, who’d been convicted of arms and drugs trafficking and laundering c. £1.9m of Mafia money in 1995. Remember her name - more to come in Part Two.

In Italy the justice system has successfully operated a “state collaboration” arrangement for more than forty years whereby a plea deal can be reached in return for evidence that will bring down co-conspirators. Panzuto bravely made this choice and over the course of numerous interviews with anti-mafia prosecutors provided names, events and crimes; murders and murderers; drug traffickers and extortion gangs; robbers and leaders; arsonists and thieves. As a consequence he was released from prison some time within the last couple of years.

Let me now draw your attention to specfic statements from the BBC article from 2020:

..he (Panzuto) told the prosecutors everything about his British associates. He told them about the scams - the name of the businessman, his bent lawyer and his dodgy accountant...

Michele Del Prete passed to the UK all the information about Panzuto’s British businessman host…

“I remember the British told us that [‘the businessman’] was definitely involved in scams - they’d known about this character,” says Michele Del Prete.

The BBC go on to say that Lancashire Police did open an investigation - but nobody would tell them what happened to it, and that there is nobody in the force today who has knowledge of the Panzuto affair. For information, this was an 18-month inquiry into 2009 before it was quietly kicked into the long grass. 🧐

Perhaps the cherry on the icing of this particular cake is the closing statement by the BBC in their 2020 update:

The British businessman who helped Panzuto is still out there today working scams - and we cannot name him for legal reasons. 

Since the beginning it has been evident that Lancashire Constabulary have been directed to be complicit in the cover-up surrounding what they steadfastly have categorised as a missing person investigation. The example above from recent times is to indicate how what we’ve witnessed with our own eyes (e.g the deceptive press conferences and faked discovery), coupled with a deeper knowledge of what really goes on (or not as is the case in selective policing), can provide a compelling argument to explain the extraordinary set of events.

‘Nobody in the force today’ (BBC, Feb 2020)

Taking a closer look at this claim relating to the Panzuto affair some seventeen years ago in 2006. By way of timeline, at this time Nikki was married to Simon Booth living in Thornton-Cleveleys and Paul Ansell was still living at home with his parents in Poulton-le-Fylde.

DSI Rebecca Smith (pictured press conference 15th Feb 2023):-

DSI Rebecca Smith is due to retire from the Lancs police force March 2024** after thirty years service. Here from her own LinkedIn business profile, quote:

“Experienced senior leader with 30 years experience in policing, specialising in the management of serious organised crime, major crime and safeguarding…..An accredited Senior Investigating Officer at both PIP 3, PIP 4 and Kidnap and Extortion….I am a force SIO with extensive experience of leading high profile investigations into murder, child death, kidnap.”

…………………………………………………….

** UPDATE 6th Nov’23 [astounding timing but nevertheless, barely a few days after writing this post lo and behold, DSI Rebecca Smith has retired and left the force. Some might find this opportune timing as we wait on the College of Policing autumn report!]

DSI Rebecca Smith - retirement, leaving the building video

…………………………………………………….

Do the maths and it’ll start to become clearer to anyone catching up why it was necessary to formally raise the complaint of serious corruption against DSI Smith back in April, as detailed in earlier posts. Staying true to her role as Senior Investigating Officer, drawing a veil over what happened to Nikki was child’s play. It could even be viewed as her crowning performance, such was the challenge to maintain a shred of credibility with such a poor script foisted onto her, which will have relied upon the considerable experience as a seasoned professional.

It’d be an oversight not to remind everyone of Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson that chaired the police press conference of 15^th February with DSI Smith. He was the that maintained a poker face while speaking on live television to confirm that they’d recovered Nicola Bulley’s body the previous day from the river🤥. He began his policing career many moons ago too in Preston, Lancashire.

Giuseppe Persico (senior Camorra mafia member)

Who? Turning back to the considerable renewed media interest around the Panzuto affair in 2020 it was notable for an omission of a small detail, easy to miss. This gentleman has quite a pedigree, born in Naples in May 1974 and happened to also arrive in Lancashire during 2006 (based around Chorley). However, in October 2008 Persico was arrested on drug-trafficking charges in a swoop by Portuguese Police after landing at Faro airport. He too was extradited to Italy, where he received a lengthy prison for his role within the Camorra. It’s unclear how long he served in all, but he was eventually released on appeal before returning to the UK (and Lancashire of course). Remember his name as it leads to an uncanny coincidence and the inspiration to explore an exicting new industry for Lancashire.

Italy

There are many things the Italians are famous for - it’s a wonderful country, the people, the food, culture and traditions. In addition to being among the most stylish population with a love for shoes, what most might not know is Italy is among the top four consumers with Spain, Morocco and France that make up c. 70% of the c. 45K ton global snail market. A sizeable market that could present all sorts of opportunities, and loving snails myself, please indulge me as we take a brief journey into how Lancashire is set to make it’s mark on the world stage.

Snail farms (in Lancashire?)

• 2017 & 2018

From Youtube in February 2018, two enthusiasts (John Rowe and his partner Leanne) clearly passionate about building up their business - note, the branding of L'Escargotière. Nice!

Back to the previous year in 2017 they’d also launched the sister company Helix Extra in May that focused on snail cosmetics - which is a fast growing global market all in itself of some $500 million.

As you know, any genuine business will be seen to make use of digitial marketing campaigns across social media platforms as well as court the media where possible to gain free publicity and extra exposure. By way of example, such as from this show attended below in May 2018, an insight being given into the hard work setting up the snail ranch and L'Escargotière - and in successfully supplying many restaurants across the country.

A final example, local press publicity (October 2018) with John Rowe and his partner Leanne again interviewed on how they breed Helix Aspersa Muller and Helix Aspersa Maxima snails (the type you find in your garden), looking at this point to expand and secure investment for a snail restaurant at the Backridge Farm business centre.

Two hard working entrepreneurs with a clear passion for the business. What happened next?

• 2019

All at once, quite an abrupt change - this announcement via their Twitter account 30^th January 2019.

Well, well, well. An interesting comment posted on their page in response, slagging them off.🤔

It’s patently clear to see that Leanne and John had been non-stop slogging it out since early 2017 if not before, building and growing a small business. The re-branded Lancashire Bowland Snails was indeed set up from scratch by way of a limited company incorporated February 2019, with both Leanne and John as the two directors and joint owners. In effect, they’d started again and from the marketing it’s clear they maintained their prior momentum with some success, attending a variety of fayres through the year, launching (a now defunct) new website in August and even making the trip to the 48^th International Meeting for Heliciculture in Cherasco*, Italy in September 2019 before the Marine Hall Christmas markets in Fleetwood at the end of the year. [* Cherasco Worldwide Institute of Snail Breeding was founded in 1973 - a link is provided towards the end].

However, from early 2020 neither have ever had any involvement with snail farming again. There’s no longer been any trace of a snail farm at the Backridge Farm business since before lockdown in March 2020.

John Rowe became part of a team behind the newly opened Roberto’s Bar and Bistro in Blackburn further to a lease that was agreed in February 2020 but unbeknown to anyone at that time, it turned out to be desperately poor timing given the nationwide lockdown imposed at the end of March. Many a small business never stood a chance and the Council displayed their laser-focused due diligence which included closing down the establishment after it had reopened in August 2020 for breaching the guidelines set by the government that empowered them to do so - guidelines that were only ever to be applied to the little people for agendas that the public need not trouble themselves. Certainly don’t look at the non-stop billions of pounds of money-laundering straight from the public purse. How they laugh.

To not digress too much, John Rowe’s story unfortunately comes unstuck when on 16^th Feb 2023 he was sentenced to three years and nine months prison for his part of a ‘23’-strong gang that were charged in June 2021. They were described by the police and media as a ‘Breaking Bad’ style gang who imported hundreds of kilograms and millions of pounds of drugs from mainland Europe. The investigation, part of Lancashire’s Operation Warrior, is portrayed as the force’s response to tackling serious and organised crime and delivering on PCC Andrew Snowden's ‘Fighting Crime Plan’ priority of disrupting and dismantling organised crime. Some of the actual CCTV footage recovered by the police from the group’s base as part of the investigation was released via the media showing the inside of the group’s operating base where some of the OCG members, togged up in forensic suits, can be seen to be weighing out and cutting amphetamines with mixing agents to be distributed and sold all over the country.

Having now looked at numerous crimebusting media reports that big up the success of Lancashire’s Operation Warrior and ‘Fighting Crime Plan’, it’s become increasingly clear there’s more than meets the eye. This’ll have to wait for another day in pursuit of greater transparency into Lancashire policing strategy, so for now to return to snail farming at the point where Leanne and John were no longer involved (early 2020).

The question that occurred to me is who else might have had a vested interest and what sort of people might they have been in bed with metaphorically speaking? To start to pull on this thread we first turn to a well-known and respected local figure from the past.

The Rise and Fall of Tommy Ball - published July 2023

Published in July and available from Amazon: ‘The Rise and Fall of Tommy Ball’ is essentially the memoirs of Mrs Patricia Price who is his daughter and had wanted for a long time to write a history of her father’s life that reveals the celebrated shoe magnate as a Jekyll and Hyde character.

It has very good reviews and this rags to riches story ought to be an interesting read, clearly a driven man having built-up a significant shoe business from scratch in and around Blackburn from humble beginnings in the 1950s. He retired in 1986 due to ill-health, selling Tommy Ball’s Shoe Store for an undisclosed sum before leaving Blackburn for the Isle of Man where he died in 2008. Shoe Store as it happens went into administration that same year, 2008. After his death Blackburn citizens called for a statue to be erected in his memory such was the feeling for his contribution and all the fond memories as the go-to place for cut-price shoes. This very much in stark contrast to his disputes and permanent split from the rest of his family that was never resolved. A response from his daughter-in-law posted online by way of addressing an inexact memory of one reader comment to a Oct 2020 media article provides some insight:

Tommy Ball’s family and their business interests

Returning to the earlier savage tweet from Anthony Ball to the rebranding announcement, he is the son of Terrence Ball (the latter now in his seventies) who in turn is the son of the shoe magnate from the 70’s & 80’s, Tommy Ball.

Terrence Ball is married to Judith (of the above response) and in addition to their son Anthony, they have a daughter called Katherine Turner. Patricia Price (the author) is therefore his sister. There are many other family members, but this just a whistle-stop tour and it can be assured that Terrence Ball and his daughter alone can astonish you with their diverse business interests, past and present.

• 2010

The shoe business was evidently in the blood as back in 2010 a number of companies run by the family were taken to court by the Companies Investigations Branch of the Insolvency Service, with the Government claiming the family moved assets through four different companies – Ball Shoes, Rebell Holdings, Baer and Hyper Investments – to avoid paying creditors. During a five-day trial the Insolvency Service accused Terence Ball, his wife Judith and daughter Katherine of transferring assets from Ball Shoes, to Rebell Holdings, to Baer Limited - claiming Baer Limited’s assets were set to be acquired by Hyper Investments.

Terrence Ball was additionally subject to a criminal investigation for being involved with Baer while in breach of a nine-year director disqualification order he’d received in 2006. The upshot is that in the public interest the Judge agreed Baer should be wound up and on 15th October 2010 in the High Court of Justice the Secretary of State for Business successfully obtained the Court-ordered winding up of Baer Limited under the provisions of the Insolvency Act 1986 - a petition the respondents of which were Baer Limited and Katherine Turner.

At this time the family owned a number of other companies, continuing to sell footwear under the Shoe Sale brand and bathroom equipment from Bathroom Traders shops. Just as an aside, a glance at Companies House reveals a multitude of appointments of Terrence Ball to directorship of many companies come 2016 with his sister Patricia Price simultaneously resigning as director at that point. This can be understood from the prior time-limited disqualification of Terrence Ball in 2006 as being unfit to be director of a company. His sister was effectively holding the fort ahead of business endeavours to follow.

• 2021

This an attempt to grossly oversimplify a complex sham, so the full Court judgement is linked here.

Judgement approved - sham business rates avoidance scheme

In a nutshell, one of Mr. Ball’s more visible enterprises goes by the brand name of Crusader set up in 2018.

The idea being to take a slice of the business rates avoided by clients on empty properties by creating fictitious tenants (other than by the formal paperwork creating the illusion of tenants). In the absence of tenants, the business rates would otherwise be due and payable to the Council by the property landlord. Naturally with short-term leases via shell companies, the council would end up having to write-off any uncollected invoiced rates to elusive so-called tenants. Ultimately, the council can balance their books through other means like increased council tax year on year, but the optics aren’t great.

First, the outcome of the trial:

The original judge at Leeds Magistrates Court summed it up in the following way, before finding in Leeds City Council’s favour and calling out the sham for what it is.

“Snail farming was a practical impossibility in the units and in that sense 'could not have operated there'. A use other than snail farming would not have been legitimate because it would have breached the Snail Farming Restriction. Thus, the lease allowed no legitimate business to take place.”

When the appeal was lodged to the High Court, Mr Justice Fordham kicked it firmly into touch.

“You (District Judge Holland) were right to conclude that the leases were shams. There was no legal error, there is no basis and no need to remit the case, and the appeal is dismissed.”

Within the judgement there are many pages of wording around the legal principles of a sham which is only ever necessary in a courtroom setting. Let’s just call a spade a spade. Crusader had set up on behalf of their client many shell companies with variations on the name of ‘Heliciculture’ (e.g. snail farming), ‘Helix Escargot’ and suchlike with short-term leases to create the impression of a tenant. It must have been hard to keep a straight face with the drafted leases containing this unique restriction for the offices to only be used for snail farming.

Not one to give up, a new brand was set up with BoyceBrook Ltd just two months after this unequivocal case law in the High Court (in May 2021) with the exact same purpose in mind - solutions for empty property rates avoidance. This company was struck off the Companies House register in October 2022 having not filed any accounts, but nonetheless a newly-formed BoyceBrook Limited was then incorporated in November 2022 (property signage as pictured below).

In my opinion, the outward perception created for these premises in Inglewhite Road, Longridge - from Crusader before it - has been to showcase a semi-viable if arguably disreputable business (complete with website). For years it has principally served as Mr Ball’s administrative HQ from which to set up and register company after company.

However, for the moment to return to Leanne and John’s announcement back on 30^th January 2019 regarding their newly-branded Lancashire Bowland Snails Ltd company.

Snail farming?

This necessitated their exit and resignation in all forms from the two previous limited companies from prior years, L'Escargotière (Bowland) Ltd and Helix Extra UK Ltd. Imagine my surprise who had taken over as sole director for each of the two companies, filed just the previous day 29^th January with Companies House.

For L'Escargotière (Bowland) Ltd - it was Terence Ball and for Helix Extra UK Ltd - it was Joseph Persico (born May 1974)

Ring any bells, Joseph?…..Guiseppe? Perhaps it’s from regularly holidaying abroad in the past that Mr and Mrs Ball have by coincidence a number of Italian friends based both here and in Naples. Aside from directorship of a company, the ownership is always the more intriguing side of company structures. In addition to large numbers of shell companies for the empty property business rates avoidance sham, a further network and web of companies provides the unfortunate impression of having been designed to obscure who owns what. Even allowing for those who’re well-versed with creative accounting principles, it’s impressive.

As already established, at the beginning of 2020 there was no longer any actual snail farming in this small corner of the country so all prior marketing campaigns unsurprisingly ceased. There’s no need to advertise if there’s no business - we’ve been here before.

What remains then? Well, L'Escargotière (Ribble Valley) Ltd had been incorporated by Terence Ball in December 2018, the month before the split with Leanne and John’s departure. This is the company that maintains this beautiful website to this day.

L'Escargotiere website

It claims to offer, by email order only, snails for purchase at £14 per kilo and to allow 10 days for preparation and delivery. There’s no telephone number incidentally, nor any acknowledgement of an email enquiry sent which is disappointing. As a reference, farmed Helix Aspersa Muller escargots from Lyn at Somerset Escargot (the real deal) are available for £25 per 500g, available on a 1-2 days lead time should you be after some snails.

Never mind, it’s the same legal entity behind a number of planning applications submitted to Ribble Valley Council that started back in November 2020 which we will return to for a better understanding of the whole. The most recent filed accounts indicate zero employees, with ownership of the company since March 2021 by L’Escargotiere Ltd which since February 2022 has itself been the subsidiary company of Caltz Investment Holdings Ltd. The sole director for which naturally is of course Terence Ball, but all shares and full ownership reside with his daughter, Katherine Turner.

It’s almost as if a pattern might be starting to emerge, a sense of déjà vu.

For a long while the administrative magic has largely been routed through Mr. Ball’s HQ above, this has more recently been in the process of reorganisation the last couple of years to relocate to a newly-built operational hub at nearby Boadicea Park, Preston Road, Ribchester (to which the Ribble Valley Council planning applications mentioned relate). The reorganisation also involves a close business partner who has assumed ownership of other companies through an admin location on the coast at the other side of the country in Great Yarmouth. Out of scope, as this would be the subject of a book in it’s own right.

Accounting and finance - smoke and mirrors

Sheridan Business and Trading Centre predates Crusader that predated BoyceBrook as Mr Ball’s administrative premises and HQ. Sheridan still has the one employee noted in the filed accounts and appears to rack up losses year on year - the main ownership of which company has been flipped many times among many others. Most recently from an Arkgrove Properties Ltd (Mar’21-June’22) to a stand-alone dormant company, Boundary Stone Park Holdings Ltd (Jul’22 -Nov’22) before reverting back as the subsidiary to Arkgrove Properties Ltd. A gold star to anyone that can crack what this set piece might have achieved.

In passing, Arkgrove Properties serves up a gem as it’s a subsidiary to another random company called Caritas Aid and Support Ltd set up in December 2018. Sole director and ownership for both offshoots to the wider empire is a Mr Robert Peers - that is until he notified Companies House of a change to his name a little over three years later in March 2022 to Anthony Peers 🥴.

Mind you, that’s not his first name either and in my opinion Thomas Anthony Robert Peers (born May 1972) is the same gentleman that as an accountancy student got rumbled back in the year 2000 having to appear before Blackburn magistrates after successfully pulling off a benefits fraud. For easy money, he claimed he never received a social security payment cheque from the Benefits Agency, was sent a replacement and then cashed both however he was caught second time around. My best guess is that Mr Peers represents the capable accounting and finance support to Mr Ball’s intricate business interests. He certainly knows all the ins and outs having been appointed to assume directorship to one of the (surplus to requirement?) susbidiary dormant companies to Hyper Investments Ltd back in 2010, in time for it to be notified of being struck off the Companies House register in 2011.

Briefly returning to the Crusader brand that followed on from the Sheridan branded company, Crusader Legal Ltd may reasonably be assumed to have been behind drafting the deceptive leases that it’s client was reliant on in the sham avoidance scheme before the High Court. It has since changed it’s name by resolution to Yarmouth Legal Ltd and is but one of many companies now re-registered to Great Yarmouth office premises.

Many companies have come and gone in the relative blink of an eye from 2017 onwards. They have included subtle name variations on ‘Heliciculture Development Concepts’ (heliciculture the fancy name for snail farming), many variations on ‘Helix Escargot’ and yet further variations on ‘Bowland Snails Lancashire’, with most companies of which have now been dissolved. Not to be confused with the one actual snail company that Leanne and John got up and running again early in 2019 before their venture ceased in 2020: e.g. ‘Lancashire Bowland Snails Ltd’ (attention to detail is key!).

Cutting through the raft of older shell companies that act as little more than a smokescreen preventing the transparency that one might expect if things were kept on the straight and narrow, there continue to be many variations of ‘L’Escargotiere’ companies being set up - most recently L’Escargotiere RV (1) Ltd in September 2023 for example. The ‘1’ is a clue to how this is going to go. Here now to try to explain in the simplest terms how the empire appears to be put together. These new companies all sit under the entity L’Escargotiere Ltd which in my opinion may represent the origin for the bigger picture (since this entity was incorporated in October 2014) - with Patricia Price initially babysitting as director until 2016 when Terrence Ball could assume directorship and management control. As referenced earlier, the ultimate parent company is Caltz Investment Holdings Ltd.

Caltz Investment Holdings Ltd - Katherine Turner

Here’s merely a sample list of active recently-registered companies that fall under the ownership of this one holding company:-

• BoyceBrook Ltd, Boadicea Park Ltd, Angus Westley Ltd, Wessex Properties Ltd, Longchamp Clinic Ltd, Crusader (EPRA) Ltd, Shand Kydd Ltd, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Ltd, Liquidators Stock Disposals Ltd, Longchamp Ltd, City Storage Ltd, Secure Storage Limited, The Lonely Hearts Club Ltd, Vastin Ltd, L’Escargotiere Ltd………

Mostly registered in the last few years, this list doesn’t include all the subsidiaries to these subsidiary companies. The ownership of the lot sits with Katherine Turner, Terrence Ball’s daughter, as sole shareholder.

To avoid getting bogged down and to instead reach for an end almost in sight, some background on this latest new snail farming & holiday lodge venture that the planning applications relate to, will (maybe) dispel any reader confusion.

Latest (physical) developments - Boadicea Park

In 2020 following lockdown, with Leanne and John and all sign of the prior snail farming venture at Backridge Farm Business Centre a distant memory, the plans for building development subject to Council approval were under way on a piece of agricultural land that had been used for grazing sheep in the past.

Planning applications for change of use were initially met with refusal but the process continued it’s course from the end of 2020 to it’s conclusion in August 2022 by which time the applications with any necessary amendments submitted by L’Escargotiere (Ribble Valley) Ltd were approved, remaining subject to certain conditions.

Elevations:

Site plan:

In essence between the end of 2021 and through 2022 the site was transformed with the erection of a building planned for heliciculture (snail breeding) with six log cabins to be used as holiday lets [turning out to be timber-clad containers🥴]. This enabled the administrative relocation from the previous HQ in Inglewhite Road of all active companies, including BoyceBrook Limited itself (as previously pictured above) that has been re-registered to this new address at Boadicea Park in June 2023.

Internal layout plans of the main building:

Not surprising many villagers expressed their anger, with here just a few extracts from responses on the planning portal by way of example. From April 2022:-

And from June 2022 (which was after a parish council meeting). The redacted parts are as published:

Lancashire Post reports on the parish council meeting of June 2022 indicated that it didn’t go especially well. Pictured below is Terry Burns (former Burnley North East County Councillor), the representative that labelled himself as the ‘volunteer project manager’. 😂 I’ve heard it all now. The residents spoke of their bemusement when he was quoted as saying that ‘£60,000 of free playground equipment could be provided on the site if people wanted it’. Cynical perhaps and unable to put my finger on it, but I’m reminded for all the wrong reasons of ‘philanthropy’ as practiced by the fraudulent criminal that is Mr Andy Pilley.

Good fortune has shone on the selfless volunteer Terry Burns for his troubles as a company incorporated as Boyce Brook Tea Rooms Ltd during May 2022 at the Inglewhite Road address, changed it’s name by resolution to Trademark Concepts Ltd in April 2023. On the exact same day, Mr Ball resigns as director and Mr Burns is appointed as sole director, with the company address simultaneously re-registered to Boadicea Park. Ownership of which is split 50/50 between Mr Burns and one of Katherine Turner’s many subsidiary companies.

Snail breeding finally?

Presumably this must be firing on all cylinders by now, pushing ahead full-bore? Curiousy there are no obvious marketing campaigns by way of advertisement and not even a reply to an email enquiry. Originally the scheme was touted to be a benefit for sustainable tourism development to include an educational facility, comments to the Council through the process clarify that this may have morphed into more of a commercial premises development with a new internal layout shrinking the allocated heliciculture space, with inclusion of a 3 metre roller shutter door that potentially allows for vehicular access.

It’s clear that the naturally eco-friendly outdoor Cherasco snail method that Leanne and John adopted isn’t the route being pursued. There’s a link below to Escargot World, all about Lyn at Somerset Escargot that I made reference to earlier - who adopts a similar low overhead and sustainable technique outdoor approach.

• Cherasco Method - snail farm

• Somerset Escargot

Return on investment (ROI)! This is always a key metric in measuring business success. With all the capital invested in infrastructure, ongoing cost of utilities, labour costs, advertising costs - this could make for a wonderful case study for a student business studies lecture. With a revenue pricing model at £14 per kg and pitched to aggressively undercut the marketplace, what might be the target for daily kilograms of snails shifted to reach break-even alone? The mind boggles.

Still, it’s clearly been a long journey in reaching this point and it’ll be intriguing to follow progress of the new venture as it flourishes. It wouldn’t come as a total surprise if the heliciculture premises need to be repurposed to achieve the planned ROI. Watch this space!

Wrapping Up

Having forgotten where I started, distracted and carried away with the intrigue of the soon-to-be booming Lancashire snail industry, to briefly revisit how much of a tangent this has turned out to be from the original plan for the post.

It was high time and well overdue to leave behind painfully elementary facts of the false narratives; such as impossibility of people being in two different places at the same time for example (which is cast-iron proof of people and police telling porkies). All those that failed at this first hurdle are well-catered for with videos to keep them entertained and with continued misinformation propagated on Twitter and Facebook. To provide a skiing analogy, while a certain audience are to remain confined within Kindergarten, it’s time for those awake to venture out onto the more challenging of black slopes.

Nothing is ever as it seems. It’s indisputable Lancashire Constabulary have long-serving senior officers with mountains of incriminating evidence from a mothballed 18-month investigation back in time that would have put a major dent in organised crime. However, instead the signs are that the underworld and shadow economy continues to go from strength to strength.

Back in October 2013, the newly rebranded National Crime Agency (NCA) that employ more than 5,000 officers with a range of expertise to ‘protect the public from serious and organised crime’ came into being. Seen as the “British FBI”, this was the third rebranding in fifteen years - previously the National Crime Squad (NCS) and then Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). They do now however have the power of arrest and all NCA officers are triple-warranted, which means they have the powers and privileges of police, customs and immigration. NCA is operationally independent and accountable to Parliament through the Home Secretary🙄.

For anyone perhaps spellbound by a continuous stream of media reporting around crime investigation success in Lancashire, it’s worth taking a harder look. Start to notice that all with few exceptions are minor lower-league players and small-time criminals. The haul itself might appear big, but foot soldiers can be swapped in and out time and time again.

The underlying message is that there exist many at the top of each chain that are well-connected in some capacity with law enforcement agencies to the extent that the police can be seen to collaborate when required.

With the bigger picture and having addressed the first question, next it’s time to shine a light on the second question. Who from Nikki’s background and social circle can be directly linked to crime syndicates, be they past or present? Fundamental when it comes down to it and a spoiler alert: it’s not from Paul Ansell’s side, regardless of course that he is by definition embroiled in it (but not in control of it) from early on. Perhaps before getting there the College of Policing will astound everyone and have taken steps with their autumn report to trigger a criminal investigation?