Printweek has been in contact with author Lani Leigh, who paid Book Printer more than £1,000 over the summer for books that never materialised.
Leigh said she was dealing with someone who claimed to be the area manager, and who said their name was ‘William Jones’.
John, whose full name is Neill Stuart Malcolm John, has in the past used various aliases including 'Malcolm' and 'Stuart'.
Leigh said excuses for non-delivery began a week after she had paid for her books.
“I had a book signing last weekend, I had to pull out. I have another one in America on Saturday I nearly lost all of that. But I was lucky to find a printer in Atlanta at the last minute,” she said.
“I want this guy to be brought to book, if not he will keep fleecing people.”
The firm’s website, print-book.co.uk, bears a remarkable resemblance to multiple websites connected with John’s many previous ventures.
It also contains the same ‘testimonials’ as tradebookprint.co.uk and greatbritishpublishers.co.uk. The testimonial pages across the three sites feature, without explanation, the logos of various high-profile brands including Bentley Motors, Chelsea FC, Swarovski, EA Sports and Walt Disney.
The print-book.co.uk site also refers to ‘The Best Press’ another trading style associated with John.
Its mission statement claims the firm has “a vast array of state of the art printing machinery in London and Antwerp”.
There is no limited company name associated with the business. The terms and conditions link goes to a faulty webpage, mag-printer.co.uk.
In May, John was disqualified from being a director for eight years because of his activities.
His business associate Clair Hunnisett (full name Clair Rosina Hunnisett) was banned for six years.
Last week the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industry Strategy lodged a petition to wind up yet another print farming company where John was previously a director, Bookworld Ltd, formerly Printed Books Ltd.
Printweek has attempted to contact Book Printer but has received no response.
The print farming firms named above are in no way connected to: Hampshire-based The Printing Press Ltd; specialist letterpress printer and bindery Book Printers Ltd of Finedon, Northamptonshire; Crewe-based The Printing House Ltd; UKPrint.biz, which is a trading name of Ruby Giraffe Ltd of Manchester; www.bookprintinguk.com which is run by Bonacia Ltd in Peterborough, or www.magprint.co.uk which is part of Stephens & George Print Group.
