Cameo: cache of customers' goods found

A spokesman for the Reading-based Official Receivers, Graham Rogers, said letters had gone out to hundreds of disgruntled clients of the bankrupt, Midgham-based firm.
Police and West Berkshire Council’s trading standards department received more than 600 complaints since the Newbury Weekly News first published clients’ concerns over non-payment, bounced cheques and missing goods.
The floodgates opened and hundreds of complaints poured in from across the globe.
There were also numerous claims that Cameo wrongly took cash from the bank accounts of dozens of people who merely registered but had never taken part in an auction.
Cameo suspended trading following a raid by West Berkshire Council’s trading standards officers in May.
Then in June Cameo boss Jon King was officially declared bankrupt due to a creditors’ petition.
Mr Rogers said this week: “We’ve established there are some goods which have been under third party control and we’re waiting to hear that they’ve been recovered.
“We will then hopefully be able to match them to the owners so at least some people will be happy to get their goods back. We’ve sent out letters and are cataloguing replies at the moment.”
The main process of establishing the firm’s assets and sorting through creditors’ claims is likely to continue well into the new year, said Mr Rogers.
Thames Valley Police spokeswoman Rebecca Webber said: “The allegations into Cameo are still being investigated jointly between police and trading standards who have taken approximately 60 witness statements to date.
“It is an ongoing investigation which is taking time due to the number of complainants and the fact that they are geographically spread out across the country and in some cases abroad.”