BBC apology to The Resort Group PLC related to the Panorama programme
The edition of BBC’s Panorama Programme, which aired 11th July 2016, made numerous false and unfounded allegations regarding The Resort Group PLC. These allegations were inaccurate and contained misleading information that resulted in an unbalanced and unfair portrayal of The Group.
In addition, the presenter of Panorama, also made highly defamatory statements on the BBC Radio 4 Show, “You and Yours”, which previewed the Panorama programme on the 11th July 2016.
The BBC subsequently made an on-air apology in response to a complaint regarding the unfair treatment of The Resort Group. Please find below a link and full transcript of the BBC apology.
“On the 11th July 2016, an interviewee on You and Yours referred to pensions reviews and pension transfers into investments with The Resort Group PLC (TRG). We accept it isn’t correct that a police officer was conned by TRG into investing his salary, final salary pension, with them. Because he made his pension transfer arrangements with a company unconnected to TRG and his £112,000 pension pot was not invested into The Resort Group. You and Yours apologises to TRG for this error”
The Panorama programme focussed on how new clients were introduced to an investment in The Resort Group via independent third party companies. This was specific to regulated pension sales and featured two client cases in particular.
The first client claimed that they did not understand what they had invested in, despite signing documentation stating they had read and understood the investment. However, after the client raised this with The Resort Group, and contrary to what was claimed in the programme, this client was refunded their investment in full.
The second client featured, claimed to have “lost” their pension after investing. It was later proven that this client did not invest any funds into The Resort Group.
These facts were not correctly presented in the Panorama programme, which resulted in an unfair and false representation.
The Resort Group is a world-class luxury resort hospitality company specialising in creating five-star holiday resorts and hotels and a trusted partner of some of the world’s leading travel companies. Over the past 10 years we have built a solid track record of completing developments and delivering investment returns to thousands of clients.
All investments with The Resort Group are secure; our investor clients have always received all the payments due to them and will continue to do so in the future.