Pavel Barter published a follow up to his article last year on the mis-selling issues that purchasers of French leaseback properties have experienced. In this piece he has focused on the eviction compensation (éviction d'indémnité) aspect. Compensation of up to €70k is being demanded by some operators to get out of these contracts and get their houses back. "Brian Hayes, a Fine Gael MEP, believes that developers, notaires — French legal specialists — operators and sales agents made false promises. “This was a scam on an extraordinary level. These parties were all part of the same operation,” he said. Virginie Beaumeunier, head of the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, told Hayes she was conducting a nationwide investigation into Irish leaseback cases, which she hoped to conclude this year." It remains unclear how it would be possible for anyone to conclude that there was not deception involved... The piece appeared in yesterdays Sunday Times (see p.8 Irish edition).