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Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. 

R.G. writes: I am sending you a string of emails I have received from Lodore Investment Management. 

Its representative Charles Stone comes across on the phone as a very genuine person, but I would very much appreciate your views. 

Imposter: Lodore stole the identity of a farming firm based in the Lakes

Tony Hetherington replies: My views are that there is not a bargepole big enough that would make me tell you to touch the deal that is on offer, nor a spoon long enough that would let me advise you to sup with this devil. 

Lodore's website and emails say that it operates from a large office block near Euston Station in London. It advertises: 'Since the mid-1980s, Lodore have been offering a variety of specialist services to help grow and sell alternative investments.' It claims to spend years working with clients to maximise their wealth, adding that, 'we act as asset managers and we like to build partnerships with our clients'. 

And the company gives its registration number as 00166329, which records at Companies House confirm is the right number for Lodore Limited, which has been in business since 1920.

Yet everything you have been told, and everything claimed in Lodore's email and on its website is complete and utter lies. 

Lodore in London is an impostor, a clone that has stolen the identity of the real Lodore, which has its registered office in Liverpool and is a land and farming business based in the Lake District. Accountant Clive Plummer, who has looked after the real Lodore's affairs for many years, told me: 'We are genuine, innocent bystanders. They are using the real company's number.' 

The real Lodore has been contacted by three people who thought it operated the Euston investment business. Plummer reported the clone to Action Fraud and to the Financial Conduct Authority but, he says, they were not interested: 'The FCA told us to take your problems away unless it is you that is being scammed.' 

Lodore's approach to you came out of the blue. It claimed to have a system for searching escrow accounts in banks and then tracing people who could claim those funds. There is no such system, but the fake Lodore said it had found £10,485 that was due to you from an unsuccessful investment you made many years ago. 

The snag was that you had to pay £1,550 up front as legal fees to get the money released. You were asked to send this to a bank account in the name of JEM Limited, a tiny company set up two months ago and registered to a flat in South London. Needless to say, do not part with a penny. There is no pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow. 

It would have been nice to have a comment from the fraudsters about all this, but soon after I began enquiries they seem to have gone to ground, with their phone unanswered and unwilling to accept messages. 

If they have gone forever, then good riddance.

Losing out on Wetherspoon staff's free shares plan 

G.J. writes: While in the sixth form, my granddaughter worked part-time at a Wetherspoon pub, and at university she worked at two other Wetherspoon pubs until last year, when she was furloughed. 

When lockdown ended, she needed a full-time job but her manager was not interested so she had to quit. She was in the share incentive plan, and bought shares as well as receiving some free, but when she resigned she was told she was not entitled to them. 

She believes she has lost thousands of pounds. 

Tony Hetherington replies: Wetherspoons and its boss Tim Martin have a good reputation for being customer-friendly, so I asked whether it was true that free shares had been snatched back from your granddaughter just because there was no full-time job available for her. 

I was given details of all her shares, showing she bought 39 shares and was given 97 free. 

But the free shares have strings attached. They cannot be sold for three years, and are lost if you leave the job within three years of having been granted them, leaving your granddaughter with just 13. 

The result is that she has received £368 as share sale proceeds, but on the slightly brighter side she has only forfeited about £600 and not thousands. 

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.