Finance industry bans six guilty of £4m fraud

FRAUDSTERS who cheated investors out of millions of pounds on a “false promise of substantial profit” have been banned from the financial services industry.

Scott Crawley, Dale Walker, Daniel Forsyth, Brendan Daley, Aaron Petrou, Ross Peters, Adam Hawkins and Ricky Mitchie were convicted in 2015 for their parts in an elaborate scam that swindled 110 victims out of savings worth at least £4.3 million.

Yesterday, Crawley, Forsyth, Hawkins, Peters, Petrou and Walker were prohibited by the Financial Conduct Authority from any holding role in the industry.

All six – together with Mitchie and Daley – took part in a unauthorised collective investment scheme between July 2008 and November 2011 which was fronted by three companies: Plott Investments Ltd – later known as Plott UK Ltd – European Property Investments (UK) Ltd, and Stirling Alexander Ltd.

Salesmen for the companies cold-called potential investors to sell them agricultural land that the companies had bought for minimal amounts as well as land the companies did not own.

Using sales scripts, misleading promotional material, and high-pressure sales techniques, they lied about the current and future value of the land and persuaded people to buy up plots at a “vastly inflated price”, according to the FCA.

The scheme extracted at least £4.3m from investors – equivalent to an average of £39,000 per victim. None of them have seen a return.

The scam was eventually busted by Operation Cotton, one of the largest investigations ever undertaken by the FCA.