Prison sentences for former directors behind £70 million investment fraud

Pickard was sentenced to six years in prison for fraudulent trading. Greenaway has been sentenced to five years and three months, while Laver was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. All three have been disqualified from acting as directors for ten years.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) told Southwark Crown Court that its investigation into Ethical Forestry Limited uncovered how the former directors ran a Bournemouth-based Call Centre, cold-calling and persuading members of the public to withdraw and invest funds from their pension schemes in a tree-planting operation in Costa Rica.

Investigators found that employees of Ethical Forestry Limited used false company names without disclosing their true employer in order to gain the trust of victims before encouraging them to transfer their savings to the scheme.

Trees were indeed planted in Costa Rica using the funds, but nothing was set aside to maintain or harvest the saplings, in turn meaning that investors’ money could never generate the returns they had been promised.

Luxury lifestyles 

While their victims watched their life savings disappear, the defendants spent millions of pounds of the stolen money funding their luxury lifestyles, including amassing high-end sports cars and going on luxury holidays across Europe and Asia. Greenaway purchased a £1.9 million home, while Pickard bought a £4.3 million property in Sandbanks, Poole.

In addition, £2.77 million of investors’ money was also diverted and used to administer a tax avoidance scheme for the directors’ own benefit.

The SFO’s investigation led all three defendants to plead guilty to fraudulent trading in January this year ahead of a scheduled trial.

Graham McNulty QPM, director of the SFO, explained: “These former directors preyed on people’s good intentions to support a ‘green’ investment, stealing £70 million from hard-earned life savings and pensions. Our thorough investigation process exposed this fraudulent scheme, while the strength of our evidence led us to secure three guilty pleas, duly resulting in the sentences that have been handed down. This is an important step towards justice.”

*Further information is available online at www.gov.uk