Re: Re: Were You a victim of Grant?
@PVC King wrote:
Got an e-mail back from the site in question stating that he had never practiced in Dublin; there is a good article in this for a journalist either tracking the guy down to a fairly unsalubrious part of the M25 connurbation or highlighting the risks of bloggers linking a common name with an entirely innocent party.
well, either the person who emailed you is lying or a vary lazy sunday times journo took his info off this site. Half page article on this very topic on page 5 of the Sunday Times news section.
May 31, 2009
Fake architect opens design practice in UK
David Grant, who was exposed by an RTE documentary, claims to have 25 years’ experience in the industry Colin Coyle
David Grant, a businessman who falsely claimed to be an architect and who was exposed by an RTE Television documentary, is now operating an “architecture” practice in England.
Grant, who remains the subject of court proceedings with Dublin city council, is running Inspire Design in the East End of London. He is described on the company’s website as having “over 25 years’ experience in architecture, design, property development and planning applications”.
Dublin city council won a judgment against Grant earlier this year in relation to a hostel that he operates at 7-10 Upper Gardiner Street, and is awaiting a final order in relation to the case.
Grant pleaded guilty in 2007 to allowing dangerous buildings on Upper Gardiner Street to be used as a hostel for 170 people, including children. The council sought to have Grant jailed after it emerged that the Georgian building had been turned into a hostel without planning permission or a fire safety certificate.
Grant committed to selling two properties he owned in the city centre to pay for remedial works on the hostel, which still operates today under the name Celtic Inn.
Two years later he is still trying to sell both properties to fund further works at the hostel. He is seeking ¤1.195m for 7 Adelaide Road in Dublin 2, which he also operated as a hostel before it was gutted by fire in 2005. Earlier this month he secured planning consent to convert the fire-damaged building into 12 apartments.
The property’s asking price has been dropped from €2.5m since it first came on the market almost two years ago. Grant is also trying to sell his former Dublin residence, 61 Haddington Road in Ballsbridge, for ¤1.25m, reduced from €1.6m when it first came on the market two years ago.
Grant left Ireland following a Prime Time investigation, which revealed that he set himself up as an architect without formal qualifications. After attracting clients through a series of newspaper advertisements, Grant applied for planning permission for hundreds of infill homes in “corner sites” and side gardens in Dublin.
It later emerged that up to two-thirds of his applications to one council were rejected — three times more than the average. Grant claimed afterwards that his business had been “wiped out” following the broadcast of the documentary.
In 2003 Grant was ordered by a judge to pay a homeless man €250 every month to meet the cost of accommodation after he illegally evicted him from a bedsit in the building at Upper Gardiner Street that he had recently purchased. After removing the epileptic from his accommodation, Grant and construction workers demolished the bedsit.
The businessman was also previously the subject of an exposé by a Scottish newspaper. In the 1990s he operated as a landlord in Glasgow. A number of students lost deposits after Grant “rented” property to them that was already occupied.
On the website of his London business, he claims that he has been “consulted as an expert and written articles” in Irish newspapers. He failed to respond to calls or e-mails last week.
