After it emerged that Grant MacCusker, CEO of Letting Cloud, had fabricated a deal in which Airbnb bought his company, a new UKTN investigation has revealed that the beleagured CEO also misled investors in a crowdfunding campaign.

The venture, called Student Rents, claimed to be the “Uber of student rentals” was found to have listed three fake employees on a investor pitch deck that featured in the crowdfund campaign that went on to raise £466,000 from 179 investors.

Three of the five employees – ie. all of Student Rent’s employees, outwith MacCusker and his son, were found to be fake, with two of them, “Nicola Wood” and “Phillip Scott,” also being listed as employees for MacCusker’s bogus proptech venture, Letting Cloud.

“Nicola Wood” and “Phillip Scott,” Student Rents chief marketing officer and chief technology and product officer, respectively and “Kirsty Wilson,” the company’s chief operating officer, were all found – through the UKTN investigation – to have fake LinkedIn profiles (all of which have now been deleted), listing previous experience with companies such as Santander, Streetbees and eBay, despite the firms claiming they had never had any of trio as employees in the past. UKTN also found that the display images used for the profiles were all stock images.

UKTN’s investigation also saw them take a look at Student Rent’s Financial Projections as featured on the CrowdCube funding campaign. The pitch deck claimed that by 2026, the company projected to clear profits of £13 million – rising from just $14,000 in 2022.

MacCusker has not responded to requests for comment.

The Original Story 

A press release sent to DIGIT on April 11 claimed that Letting Cloud – an Edinburgh-based property portal set up by entrepreneur Grant MacCusker – was set to be acquired by property behemoth Airbnb. With the press release claiming that Letting Cloud has over 5,000 agents advertising over 500,000 properties in the holiday, short, and long-term rental sectors throughout the UK each year.

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It also stated that the tech that the platform is built on was set to help Airbnb with the Scottish Government’s legislation changes surrounding short-term holiday lets as well as Westminster’s imminent clampdown on ‘party houses’.

The press release also included a fabricated quote from Airbnb Director of Engineering Jordanna Kwok, saying: “We were attracted by the array of interesting problems being tackled by Letting Cloud, and how they were addressing them using modern and emerging technology.

“Whilst both companies shared similar values and market share, the technical acquisition will bring more clarity to the UK short-term and holiday rental market.

“Airbnb are continuing to thrive on solving interesting problems which will help with the recent government legislation being rolled out in Scotland and the UK.”