George Mathias
A BRITISH couple have accused a popular Marbella celebrity of attempting to steal their business.
Ross and Laura Turner claim Bally Singh – who self styles as ‘the Urban Turban’ – tried to fleece their homemade candle company during the lockdown.
They have called in the UK’s Action Fraud over claims the former Life on Marbs star almost trashed their company and caused them to lose tens of thousands of pounds profit from the business set up in September 2020.
The couple, based in Bedford, claim Gem Scents Candles is owed ‘at least’ £20,000 (€23,200).
Laura, 42, had started making the candles during the first pandemic lockdown in early 2020.
It went well and quickly became well known, leading Bally to offer her a big investment in her business.
Until he got in touch she had never heard of the Marbella-based entrepreneur, who has nearly half a million followers on Instagram.
She read up to discover he claims to wash his watches with £20,000 champagne and counts pop stars Pharell and Sting as his friends.
“We were delighted when Bally got in touch about investing,” Ross, a former mortgage advisor, told the Olive Press.
Photo: Ross Turner
Bally suggested they enter into a business partnership splitting the profits 50/50 with the Marbella mogul investing £15,000 into the company in February 2021.
But things didn’t go to plan and just four months in, the Turners claim Bally’s IT team suddenly changed the password to the company domain name, locking them out of the business.
Meanwhile, despite previously making over £10,000 a month, they had stopped receiving any takings.
In total, they claim they are owed ‘at least £20,000’, with Ross submitting a complaint to the UK’s police fraud office, which is currently pending.
The Olive Press has seen legal documents accusing Bally and his wife of trying to register an official trademark for Gem Scents candles without the owners’ permission.
It had been registered under Bally’s company Be Immune Ltd, which should have made Ross and Laura equal shareholders with him and his wife Anna.
However, documents show the Turners were registered with diminished shares, while inexplicably local Marbella celebrity Maria Bravo, who runs the Global Gift Foundation and is a friend of Ballys, was made a major shareholder, as evidenced on Companies House.
After continual threats of legal action, the Turners have finally managed to wrestle their company back.
“It has become a profitable family business again, as it was before Bally got involved,” explained Ross, this week. “But he still owes us all that money.”
Bally meanwhile completely denied he had tried to swindle the couple, insisting it was merely ‘a smear campaign’ against him.
“I close multi million deals with big names in business, why would I want to steal from a small candle company?
“The Turners are the ones who swindled me, we provided the funding and didn’t get any money back, and Ross is declared bankrupt,” he told the Olive Press.
He also shared evidence showing payments totalling £4,000 and a settlement agreement between the two parties.
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