Extra jail time for fraudster after FCA acts on unpaid fine
A fraudster who was convicted in 2015 of running an unregulated investment scheme has been given an additional 400 days in jail for failing to pay back his unlawful gains as directed by the court.
Ross Peters was convicted, along with seven others, of running an unauthorised collective investment scheme that caused backers to lose £4.3m.
He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison and subjected to a compensation order of £136,238, made on 10 January at Southwark Crown Court.
The deadline for Peters to repay this money was 10 April, but Peters failed to comply with the order, having repaid only£20,869.08 by yesterday.
Serving the additional 400 days’ jail time will not relieve Peters of the requirement to pay this sum, and he will accrue interest on the money, which will go towards compensating his victims.
FCA director of enforcement and market oversight Mark Steward said: “Confiscation orders cannot be ignored and will be enforced to ensure wrongdoers are held to account and their victims compensated as far as possible.”
Second increased jail time for Peters
The FCA has so far recovered £2.2m from the eight defendants, but Peters was already subject to an additional six months of jail time for breaching a restraining order brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
This was designed to prevent the defendants from disposing of assets or money that were to be subject to a compensation order by the court.
Peters breached this order by transferring £237,000 from various bank accounts, as well as selling two racehorses and Rolex watches.
The scheme worked by using high-pressure sales techniques and glossy marketing brochures to sell parcels of agricultural land for high prices when they were, in fact, next to worthless.
In some cases, the fraudsters even sold land that to which they did not have the deeds.
They did so through three companies, Plott Investments, European Property Investments (UK) and Stirling Alexander Ltd.
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