A UK couple have accused a popular Marbella celebrity of trying to steal their business.
Ross and Laura Turner claim Bally Singh – who calls himself ‘the urban turban’ – tried to scam their craft candle business during lockdown.
They have called Action Fraud in the UK over allegations that the former Life on Marbs star nearly ransacked their business and caused them to lose tens of thousands of pounds in profits from the business set up in September 2020.
The Bedford-based couple claim Gem Scents Candles owe “at least” £20,000 (€23,200).
Laura, 42, had started making the candles during the first pandemic lockdown in early 2020.
It did well and quickly rose to fame, leading Bally to offer him a big investment in his business.
Until he got in touch, she had never heard of the Marbella-based entrepreneur, who has almost half a million followers on Instagram.
She read on to find he claims to wash his watches with £20,000 champagne and counts pop stars Pharell and Sting as his friends.
“We were thrilled when Bally approached us about investing,” Ross, a former mortgage adviser, told Olive Press.
Photo: Ross Turner
Bally has suggested they enter into a 50/50 profit-sharing business partnership, with the Marbella tycoon investing £15,000 in the business in February 2021.
But things didn’t go as planned and just four months later, the Turners claim Bally’s IT team suddenly changed the password to the company’s domain name, kicking them out of the business. .
Meanwhile, despite previously earning over £10,000 a month, they had stopped receiving receipts.
In total, they claim they owe ‘at least £20,000’, with Ross filing a complaint with the UK 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 permission from the owners.
It had been registered as Bally Be Immune Ltd, which should have made Ross and Laura equal shareholders with him and his wife Anna.
However, documents show that the Turners were registered with reduced shares, while inexplicably local Marbella celebrity Maria Bravo, who runs the Global Gift Foundation and is a friend of Ballys, became a major shareholder, as evidenced Companies House.
After continual threats of legal action, the Turners were finally able to get their business back.
“It’s become a profitable family business again, like it was before Bally got involved,” Ross explained this week. “But he still owes us all that money.”
Bally has meanwhile completely denied trying to scam the couple, insisting it was just a “smear campaign” against him.
“I do multi-million deals with big names in the business world, why would I want to rob a small candle company?
“The Turners are the ones who scammed me, we provided the financing and got no money back, and Ross is declared bankrupt,” he told Olive Press.
He also shared evidence showing payments totaling £4,000 and a settlement agreement between the two parties.
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