A former British police officer has been arrested in Spain following a French fraud investigation linked to a collapsed luxury resort project.

Richardson Hartley Law is representing a number of UK clients who can fear they have lost money in the scheme.

Our senior partner Martin Richardson and one of our clients spoke to the newspaper about the case.

Mr Richardson told The Times: “The clients were sold a dream that has turned into a nightmare. Many have lost their life-savings.

“The arrest of Robin Barrasford on suspicion of fraud is certainly very interesting as we explore exactly what has happened in this case. Mr Barrasford’s arrest may make it easier for us to make claims on behalf of our clients who potentially wish to seek financial redress through bank fraud reimbursement models.“

The Times reported how Robin Barrasford, 56, was detained after French authorities issued an arrest warrant via the public prosecutor’s office in Bordeaux, with extradition now being sought.

Searches were also carried out in Marbella and London in connection with the Wyndham Halcyon Retreat Golf and Spa Resort – a development planned in the Creuse département of France, near the 19th-century Château de la Cazine.

Announced in 2013, the project promised a luxury complex of 358 residences, a golf course and spa, with investors invited to pay up to £1.1 million for a residence. Barrasford and his business partner, Alan Bird, 70, are directors of Halcyon Retreat, the French-registered firm behind the project. Investor documents also reference Halcyon Developments Group, based in Devon.

The resort never got off the ground. Dozens of investors say they have lost their life savings.

One of Richardson Hartley Law’s clients also agreed to speak to The Times about his investment.

Ray Holmes, 65, a retired local government officer from Derbyshire, agreed to pay £37,885 for a one-thirteenth share of a flat at the resort in 2022 after seeing it mentioned by the website of Channel 4’s programme A Place in the Sun.

Holmes, who became a father for the first time at 61, said he saw the residence as an investment but also a “place to give us some family memories. You realise at my age that you are only going to have a finite time with your daughter and so … it seemed like an attractive thing.”

He said the developers sent photographs taken from drones of the site. Initially, they showed work under way. “But then the drone flythroughs showed nothing much happening and that is when I started to get worried.”

Holmes received an initial payment of £1,136.58 but then nothing more until he posted a critical review of the project online, at which point he says Barrasford contacted him. He subsequently received a further payment of £1,421 last year but has had nothing since then.

He only paid 50 per cent of the purchase price because the rest was due after building work that has never been completed.

Nevertheless, he says he has lost about a third of his lump-sum pension payout he received upon his retirement. “It hasn’t put us on the streets but it would have been handy to have that almost £19,000,” he said.

Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed they are investigating reports of fraud relating to property investments linked to a former Tavistock-based company. No arrests have been made in the UK. Alan Bird has not been arrested and is not under criminal investigation.

Richardson Hartley Law is currently advising more than 12 investors, with senior partner Martin Richardson describing the situation as “a dream that has turned into a nightmare.”

Read The Times article in full: Former British police officer arrested over alleged French property scam

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The newspaper reported that social media platforms made £430 million last year from adverts taken out by scammers targeting users in the UK.

Research by the bank Revolut said that across Europe an estimated 10 per cent of social media advertising revenue came from fraudulent ads in 2025.

This follows on from a Reuters report claiming that Meta knowingly took billions of pounds from Facebook and Instagram scam adverts.

We were able to put The Times in contact with a Facebook scam advert victim who had lost £254,000 to a social media post that featured a deepfake AI of money guru Martin Lewis recommending an investment opportunity.

Our client spoke anonymously to the newspaper about the devastating affect the scam had had on his life.

Martin Richardson, senior partner at Richardson Hartley Law, told The Times: “I can’t imagine any other outlet in the UK being allowed to present so many fraudulent, targeted adverts. If a newspaper or TV channel were getting a significant percentage of its income by showing fraudulent adverts there would, rightly, be calls for it to be shut down.

“We see first-hand the way these scams are ruining people’s lives, leading to family break-ups, depression, severe anxiety and financial ruin. Fraud is endemic in this country, and no one is grasping the nettle. There needs to be urgent reform to stop social media firms from inadvertently helping to facilitate scams.”

Read the The Times story in full: ‘I lost £254,000 to a Facebook scam’

If you have fallen victim to a Facebook scam advert contact us today to see how we can help.

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The scam ads show the money saving expert seemingly promoting a number of investment schemes.

Two of the most common frauds that the deepfake Martin Lewis videos promote are Quantum AI and XTradeMax.

Together these two schemes are believed to have stolen tens of millions of pounds from the UK public.

Scammers are posting these deepfake videos across every social media platform including Facebook, Instagram and X.

For people unaware of how easy it is to produce these deepfake videos the schemes seem incredibly convincing.

Martin Richardson, a senior partner at Richardson Hartley Law, said: “Scammers are playing on Martin Lewis’s good name to steal money from unsuspecting investors.

“We have cases where individuals have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“More should be done to stop these deepfake Martin Lewis ads from appearing across social media.”

If you have fallen victim to a deepfake Martin Lewis ad contact us today.

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Director Jonathan Hartley of Richardson Hartley Law was invited to provide expert insight for the article, which explored the multi-billion-pound impact of scams across Britain.

Mr Hartley discussed how fraud is affecting people across all parts of society and highlighted the psychological impact on victims.

“Scam victims tend to blame themselves rather than the fraudsters,” Mr Hartley told The Times. “But this shame means that many crimes go unreported.”

He also warned that artificial intelligence and new technologies are making scams increasingly sophisticated.

“We have every stratum of society falling victim to scams. If you think you are immune to it, you are probably in a really dangerous position, especially if you have money.”

“It is people with money and people who are desperate for money who are most at risk.”

Richardson Hartley Law has also seen a sharp rise in sophisticated UK-based investment scams, many of which operate as Ponzi schemes and can steal millions of pounds from victims.

As specialists in fraud recovery, the firm regularly works to raise awareness of scams and advocate for stronger protections for the public.

Richardson Hartley Law believes the Government must take further action to protect citizens from the growing fraud crimewave.

Read the full story: How Britain tried (and failed) to stop a £10 billion crimewave

Find out more how we can help investment scam victims.

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We hosted an event at the Houses of Parliament attended by stakeholders to discuss the report which had revealed that fraud in the UK was eight times higher than previously reported.

The story of the APP fraud report was picked up by The Express, The Times, The Sun and the Mirror newspapers. Reporters from the FT, Daily Mail and Which magazine? also attended the event.

While banks and regulators have said that APP fraud payments stand at around £380million a year, the report calculates that these losses are, in reality, about £3billion per annum.

MP Phil Brickell MP, who prior to his election in July 2024 worked for more than a decade across a number of financial institutions tackling financial crime and corruption said: “The findings of this report reconfirm my gravest fear – that fraud is one of the biggest challenges facing our country today. Banks spend billions of pounds every year trying to contain the problem. But given the prevalence of fraudsters on social media platforms, tech firms in particular need to go much further to protect consumers and businesses.”

As well as MPs and journalists, the event has attended by banks, other payment service providers, fraud victims and regulators.

Martin Richardson, senior partner at Richardson Hartley Law, said: ‘The event was a great success. There was huge consensus in the room that everyone must do more to fight the fraud plague.

‘It was a good opportunity to raise awareness of APP fraud in the media.

‘We cannot leave the fight to the banks. Everyone needs to be better at fraud prevention, particularly tech platforms.

‘Our law firm will always fight for scam victims to reclaim their money but we also want to help prevent fraud.’

If you have lost money through APP fraud contact us today.

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