Driver sick last weekend

I have to take my hat off to Eddie Rayner aka John Driver.  He's amazing; he's like Agent Smith in The Matrix, or Whack-a-Mole, he just won't stay down.

As recently as this summer he was still running an operation called Narrowboat Homes, something that promised to rent out your boat on your behalf and pay you a healthy wodge of what other people would pay him to live aboard the boat.

He left a trail of miserable boatowners in his wake, all claiming bitter losses, and he's since been had up in court. 

Of course, www.narrowboathomes.com is now dead.  (Hopefully.)

But he's still using all the same old phone numbers he's always used, and you can follow the spoor of his activities with a number of useful details.  For example, an ad in Move Your Boat mentions:

• 38b Mallinson Road, SW11 1BP
• an email address of narrowboatslondon@gmail.com
• His old, longstanding, mobile no. of 07878 288342.  

That phone number also pops up in a whole bunch of assorted man-and-van-style businesses, along with a further phone no:  0207 585 2987. He offers a number of promises, including the self-contradictory:

We always turn up, and keep you informed in the unlikely event of a delay.

Recently he started using Twitter under the name @manandvanuk, and - surprise, surprise - there was the unlikely event of a delay, which Driver announced with a tweet, ambiguously using his own surname with a lower case 'd':

driver sick this weekend sorry for any delays

See also my posts: Narrowboat Homes and Man and van and narrowboat homes

Comments

[burnt fingers]

Is this the new operation? Watch out students, do your homework first.

http://www.alternativetransportservices.co.uk/

Just call J for a service you won't forget

[GRAZIANO]

I entrusted my motorbike driver jhon 2 months ago! now no longer responds to my phone.
He has continued to lie in these months!
What should I do? help me!

[Emma Brackenbury]

what a very unfortunate story!
People like him mean that people like me and my 5yr old daughter are going to find it near impossible to find a boat to rent at all!!!
:( what a shame!, I have already sold everything in my home!
He needs to be locked up for good!

[Victim Support]

Just goes to show that you have to be very very careful if an offer seems too good to be true. A couple of people ripped off by this chap have become friends and it's not been a good experience for anyone and they have all lost money and had their boats damaged and/or items stolen/disappeared/whatever the CPS will use.

Glad to see at least the narrowboat hire/rent website is no longer fuctional but I'm not convinced he's actually ceased trading on the cut. Some people ought to come with a health/wealth warning!