thousand British investors who paid a total of £43 million for off-plan overseas property developments lost their money after Ocean View was formally dissolved in 2009.

Ocean View was involved in a number of successful enterprises, but ran into difficulties when it became involved as an agent for a Spanish developer, Ricardo Miranda Miret.

Two investors sank almost a million pounds each into schemes run by Mr Miret.

They included a 350 luxury apartment build at the Estepona Country Club, on the Costa del Sol, and a prestigious 6,000 property development in Punta Perla, in the Dominican Republic.

It was at the launch of the Punta Perla development that the investors’ legal team claim Prince Albert of Monaco and President Reyna were present.

More than a thousand British investors who paid a total of £43 million for off-plan overseas property developments lost their money after Ocean View was formally dissolved in 2009.

They had paid up to £125,000 each in deposits for properties in Spain and the Dominican Republic, but the holiday homes were either never built, or were sub-standard.

Investor Mark Mackay said: “I paid £85,000 in advance for an apartment, but when it all started to go wrong, they offered me another in Morocco.’’

Another alleged victim who invested in the proposed Estepona development with family members said: “We put down a deposit of £50,000 and we haven’t seen the money since and all the time they hadn’t laid a single brick.”

One Brit told how she had remortgaged her house to pay for a £125,000 deposit on a luxury apartment in the Dominican Republic. “It’s a pure disaster,’’ she said. ‘‘I just want my money back and the whole thing to be over.”

Failed

Back in the UK, the Insolvency Service is investigating the failed property business.

Nick Wood, from official liquidators Grant Thornton, said: “We are investigating what happened to monies paid by investors, there is a black hole amounting to millions of pounds.

“We are looking to identify any claims which can be instigated to recover monies for creditors.

“Our investigation is focusing on Ocean View’s operations in the UK and overseas jurisdictions including Spain.”

Mr Thomas was unavailable for comment last night, but he has previously strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Ex-Ocean View salesman John Kenyon-Smith, from Rangemore, Staffordshire, admitted many investors were furious with the company.

But he insisted Mr Miret should refund the millions they have lost and said that both he and Mr Thomas had been left penniless by the collapse of the property firm.

Ocean View has also been probed by Staffordshire Police, but the Serious Fraud Office decided not to launch an investigation after a file was handed to them.

A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said they were “in receipt of a number of complaints alleging fraud against the company” and that officers were “considering the most appropriate way forward”.

Antonio Flores, a Spanish lawyer who is representing investors in the criminal case, said: “I don’t believe Ocean View knew nothing about what was going on.

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