Irish-registered company, MacAnthony Realty International (MRI), offered clients help with buying property abroad, and recommended the best lenders, developers and solicitors.

It was founded by well-known entrepreneur Darrah MacAnthony, who, at 31 years of age, became the youngest chairman of Peterborough United Football Club, after buying it in 2006. 

However, the property agent is now facing investigations by regulators and the Office of Fair Trading, as investors claim that they have lost thousands of pounds to MRI for services that never materialised.

Earlier this year, Sammy Wilson, the MP for the Democratic Unionist Party for East Antrim, tabled a motion, stating: “This House notes with concern the number of UK citizens who have been victims of property fraud perpetuated by MRI Ireland; and calls on the Government to make representations to the Spanish, Turkish and Irish governments to take steps to ensure that these companies cannot continue to defraud members of the public.”

MRI has something of a chequered history; set up in 2000 by Mr MacAnthony to sell Marbella holiday homes to mainly British and Irish tourists, the firm was fined £5,000 by the National Federation of Property Professionals in 2008, saying at a tribunal that it was “appalled to hear of the company’s misleading business practices”.

Since then, various clients have come forward to complain of lost money. One woman told the website This Is Money that she had put down a £57,000 deposit for a property to be built on the Spanish Costa Del Sol through MRI. She then discovered that the developer had built the house on land without planning consent.

Mortgage lenders refused to fund the deal because of the developer’s reputation of being corrupt and the transaction fell through, leaving her to pay another £4,400 in legal fees to try to win back her deposit. The case is now frozen.

Dominic Pickering, chief executive of MRI, has commented on the single case, saying he expressed sympathy with the reader but blamed the Spanish legal system.

Darrah MacAnthony has left his position at MRI but is still acting as chair of Peterborough United.