The Great Horseless Carriage Company

The company was formed to carry on the horseless carriage industry in England and works with railway and canal adjoining were secured at Coventry.

"[3] It was intended to dominate the industry through its subsidiary The British Motor Syndicate Limited by acquiring all "master patents" so that no car could be made or sold in Great Britain without being licensed by it.

Diminutive company promoter and deputy chairman, Harry Lawson, self-described "Pioneer of fin-de-siècle Locomotion" had already acquired Daimler using British Motor Syndicate Limited which he then owned with his partners E. T. Hooley and Martin Rucker.

Although they meant to build cars based on the German Daimler designs Cannstatt was so reluctant to actually provide the agreed plans instead a couple of Paris-built Panhard Levassors were imported and used as patterns.

H J Lawson as their company's chairman, took the opportunity to tell them foundations had been laid "for several working departments which would only require gradual extension to become fully competent to manage a very large output".

In 1904, company promoter Harry Lawson and business partner E. T. Hooley were indicted for "an ingenious system of fraud carried out over a long period".