Garden Advice review: fraud 31

It’s amazing what, and who, you come across on the internet these days. I came across Tim Whitcombe in the mid 1990’s when I foolishly agreed to work for him as a gardener for a company he was running called Great Gardens in the town of Sherborne in Dorset. Needless to say I was never paid apart from several checks that bounced. Over a 6 week period I was left unemployed and homeless. It was a sad time, but I put it behind me and moved on. I have thought of him over the years as not much more than a poor business man who didn’t have a clue. Then out of the blue, nearly 30 years later I stumbled upon this site. He’s clearly never moved on and is still conning everyone he meets even now. I was definitely not the first. I think he’d been doing it for years before he ever met me. There is clearly something wrong with this man. I’m no expert, but he must be some kind on psychopath to keep treating people this way. Surely he must know it’s wrong but keeps doing it anyway.

I can vouch this is correct. I was employed along with a number of other people to do various roles in Sheffield years ago. None of us was paid and he was found to be sleeping in the office that he "rented" but eventually was kicked out off due to non-payment.

We took him to court and he was convinced but none of us received any payment for any of our work even though he was found guilty.

Have you been scammed in one way or the other, kindly reach out to me via email to be among people that will be compensated.

mettro872#gmail.com

Mr. Gerald Scoot

July 2021 and Tim is still conning people. A family member of mine picked up on his advert for gardening advise and design visit via Facebook.
When contacted he become very abusive and said I know were you live.
If anyone knows we’re he is I would like to meet him.

Tim Whitcombe
Head Gardener
GardenAdvice

GardenAdvice.co.uk
tim@gardenadvice.co.uk
[protected] (office)
[protected] (mobile)

Bath office
38 Chelwood Drive
Bath Avon BA2 2PR

London Office
WeWork
Kings Place
90 York Way
London N1 9AG
[protected]

I really wish I had seen this before I came in contact with Tim [censored]combe, this pathetic excuse for a human ‘employed’ me in February this year as a garden advisor... needless to say I was never paid, I left a steady job to end up unemployed and in debt. Is there anything we can do to stop this creep from continuing to take advance of honest hard working people?

Timothy Charles Whitcombe has a history of bankruptcies and fraud. He tried to rent my cottage, in the Colchester Essex area last week. Still using Garden Advice .com also Climate Light. Spurious story about growing plants as head gardener for retail sale at a prestigious house in the area. Luckily credit checks highlighted a problem...then I found this amongst a load of other stuff ! He’s not as clever as he thinks.

I got conned by this low life to survey some offices. He seemed genuine at first and then as I got to know him neither I nor my wife felt he was for real, maybe not even on our planet! Needless to say I chased the account and found he had bailed from his offices without paying. I asked a friend who specialises in debt recovery to look into him and it transpired he has been bankrupted more than once. The chances of finding him and recovering any funds were likely to be low and costly and so, as I only lost my time, I put it down to experience and moved on, but I have 6 years to get him, so he had better lie low. He ought to be locked up, and I would happily throw away the key!

finbar don't take the job. The complaints here are genuine. I can give you more details if you contact me

I've been offered work by tim whitcombe of gardenadvice. can i get in touch with one of you to chat?

He nearly had me last year but I thought it was too good to be true so didn't show up for 'work' after googling him my jaw hit the floor. He was operating out of the Electric Works in sheffield

sorry - my message went up twice and I can't edit one of them out

I dont think he knows the word "ashamed". I don't think he is in prison either, but even if he were, it would not stop him posting onto his website. We all need to get together and bring that site down. Google has changed its interface to the extent that I can't even find where to post any kind of message let alone a complaint about a fraudulent site. So if any of you were to contact me, maybe we could present a more solid front.

Update - he's updating the blog on the website so he's obviously selling links - which means he's out of prison for the moment (he'll just disappear again) He should be ashamed of himself, he's messed up a lot of things for people, leaving them in debt. Has anyone had their work used and served him with a cease and desist notice? Please let me know. Thanks

"I hate Tim Whitcombe" - please make contact. We are all in the same boat - but too much secrecy simply helps this man's activities. He feeds on freelancers like us (from all over the world) - Get in touch and perhaps we can all present a solid and united case.

"This man is now in prison" - I would add the word "again"! Nice to see justice being done again. He owes me over £6K for work I did for him back on 2006! When I "investigated" him I found a trail of bancruptcy, failed companies and a long, long list of people and companies that were out of pocket ( well into the £100k's 6 years ago so who knows what total he has racked up by 2012 ). What I didnt know when I worked for him that he was "on the run" having failed to turn up for sentencing for a previous conviction and there was a crown court warrant out for him. I can only reiterate previous comments - and mention bargepoles!

This man is now is prison - He is a vile creature and I hope he gets what he deserves. If anyone ever comes into contact with him again - DO NOT trust this man. You willl not get a service or get paid from this man - or this company!

Have now experienced this for myself. This fellow is still going, still extorting and still running away without making payment

Believe me, garden writer, nothing this man says is true. But he is very, very plausible - I fell for it just like you - and we are only sprats compared to some of the people he's conned. His latest scam I see, is to pull in punters on a gardening franchise - I hope nobody has fallen for that one - or "our garden in Barbados" - he hasn't even got a small balcony garden in England let alone anywhere else.

I did make a dispute on Elance but alas I did not use the hourly system so they cannot do anything. I strongly urge you to file a dispute because he can be banned from using the site if people apart from me are having problems. Still claimed to me that all the BBC etc are true - I truly cannot figure out what is true, what is elaboration and what is false.

Thank you both for posting this. Have you both filed disputes with Elance? They are recommending that I do that, but I am a bit fearful. I have a great reputation on Elance and don't want to see it destroyed by this con man. I did start my own investigation on him when we started talking because he was making some enormous claims, like connections to Apple, Microsoft, BP, the New York Times, the BBC, and other major companies. Now he's trying to get me to write 100 articles a week for him and organize this elaborate scheme. Apparently he just keeps doing this. Garden Advice Media went under in early 2010, so then he started the Green Gardener, which went under in late 2010. Now his company is Adam Wilson Garden Associates. It sounds like every time the company goes under, the insolvency court lets the web domain go and he just buys it back repeatedly under a new name.

Hi Valleysboyo, I fell for exactly the same thing. But now, as with you, I expect he is targeting people away from UK and Europe. All I can tell you is that he is bankrupt, (over and over) owes thousands in Britain and elsewhere, has done time for fraud and deception and is still being watched by the police in Britain, which doesn't help us much.

I did some freelance writing for him, about eight hours work. He promised me work, about twenty hours per week. He did not come up with the goods and now owes me through Elance. He's a big talker, but that's about all. Work for him at your peril, a timewaster and a fraud.

I unfortunately fell for this thief's lies before it was too late.

Mr Tim Whitcombe of Graden Advice owes me over £1, 300.00 for freelance web development work that I completed fo rhim and I will be taking him to court.

If anyone wants to get in touch with me regarding this matter, you can do so by email at:
dylan (at) cothill (dot) me

I hope no-one else falls for this sad excuse for a human's decieving ways.

Dylan Cothill
www.cothill.me