Work on Elliot Group鈥檚 Aura scheme ground to halt in wake of fraud allegations
A 拢100m mixed-use scheme in Liverpool stalled by a police investigation into its developer is set to start again three months after it went into administration.
Work on the 拢100m Aura hotel and student accommodation scheme ground to a halt in the wake of a probe into Elliot Group founder Elliot Lawless.
He was arrested last December on suspicion of fraud along with a Liverpool council official believed to be regeneration chief Nick Kavanagh. Neither man has been charged.
The scheme, along with two others Elliot Group was developing, went into administration in March. Aura was being built by Liverpool contractor Vermont.
But the job is now set to restart after Lawless handed over the site, and a neighbouring plot to provide access, to a consortium of the scheme鈥檚 original backers.
Lawless will complete the hotel while investors, which include the developer鈥檚 largest backer Mewstone Ridges, will finish the student accommodation.
Anna Doeff from Mewstone said: 鈥淭his is the best possible deal we could arrive at. Credit is due to Elliot Lawless for working so hard to find a solution that protected our interests.鈥�
Lawless, who has denied the police allegations, said: 鈥淢y motivation throughout the administration process was to protect my investors and so I鈥檓 pleased with the outcome. I wasn鈥檛 about to leave them high and dry.鈥�
He said he was looking to sort out similar deals so that the other two sites, a 拢250m residential job in Liverpool called Infinity, also being built by Vermont, and a 拢70m scheme in Manchester called Residence can be completed as well.
Paul Cooper and David Rubin of David Rubin and Partners who handled the sale of the Aura site added: 鈥淭his was a complicated procedure which could not have been resolved without the collective buy in and efforts of the Elliot Group and the investor consortium.鈥�
In March Lawless launched a high court challenge into his arrest, which he said was 鈥渃ompletely without foundation鈥�.
The police warrant used to search Lawless鈥� home was later ruled unlawful, with Merseyside police agreeing to pay his legal costs.
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