I’ve been a consumer champion for 30 years. Here are the 20 strangest scams I’ve seen – from a bizarre ostrich trick to a £21.7 billion phone bill…

In my 30 years writing a column for The Mail on Sunday I’ve filed greater than 5,000 studies. Many contain readers’ complaints towards their financial institution, insurer, card issuer or utility provider. Others contain extra critical investigations. Lots of of individuals I’ve named in warnings have been banned as firm administrators. Lots of of corporations I’ve suggested readers to keep away from have been shut. The quantity jailed after being named by me, or who had been behind the businesses I warned towards, goes nicely into three figures.

I have been Client Champion of the Yr 4 occasions and Client Journalist of the Yr and Monetary Journalist of the Yr. I received a Decide’s Commendation at Southwark Crown Court docket in London for my investigation into carbon credit score fraud and for the prosecution proof I gave towards the ringleader, who was jailed for 13 years.

Some points by no means go away: banks that shut prospects’ accounts with out clarification, and unqualified will writers who rip off the primarily aged. Each points cry out for official motion however sadly are unlikely to get any.

Metropolis regulation had not begun after I began within the Eighties. When it did, a number of tricksters had been kicked out of the trade. Some moved overseas and continued dishonest from locations the UK couldn’t contact and a few moved into schemes that fell exterior the regulatory perimeter, reminiscent of investing in diamonds, cash, watches and wine.

However in 2011 authorities turned their focus to bribery, corruption, insider dealing and cash laundering. Investigating fraud towards abnormal traders would take a again seat. There was one nasty however predictable consequence: junior workers – chilly callers – at bogus funding outfits noticed bosses raking in a fortune with none motion being taken. Usually, the worst slap on the wrist was a ban on appearing as an organization director – no drawback because it was simple to get somebody to entrance for you in your subsequent rip-off. So yesterday’s junior chilly callers moved on to grow to be as we speak’s rip-off operators, simply as as we speak’s juniors will grow to be tomorrow’s crooks. Listed here are 20 of probably the most extraordinary examples in my Readers’ Champion case information.

1. Ostrich rip-off victims

Within the ’90s there have been very lively corporations advertising and marketing funding in ostriches, promoting that the one little bit of the fowl that would not be offered was the beak. It was claimed they had been simple to farm and breed, feathers had been utilized in style and the meat edible. However figures did not add up. Buyers who visited farms had been pointed in direction of one ostrich in a discipline of them and instructed, ‘That is yours!’. I gave warnings in 1995 and ’96 earlier than the Division of Commerce and Business shut the largest offender, Ostrich Farming Company. Its boss Brian Ketchell tried to sue me and in 2000 he was jailed for three-and-a-half years. Victims misplaced some £22 million.

2. My greatest money victory

In 1995 I used to be thrilled to win £100,000 for a reader from an insurance coverage firm refusing to pay on a home subsidence declare. However my greatest money victory got here in 2011, simply earlier than Christmas, when a reader obtained a requirement from BT for £21,756,470,275.49. It ordered the reader to pay inside ten days or face authorized proceedings. I obtained the invoice lowered to its right determine, £275.49. This have to be a file for a client champion!

3. Millenium bubbly loses fizz

Within the late ’90s, a string of dodgy champagne sellers arrange, claiming worldwide events on December 31, 1999 would result in a world scarcity of bubbly, making it essential funding on the present value. My first warning was In January 1997 after I sounded the alarm over Home of Delacroix, its critically overpriced fizz and advertising and marketing lies. Different warnings quickly adopted. In 2001, three of the individuals behind Home of Delacroix had been jailed for fraud.

4. Downfall of a conman

In 1995, I investigated Chase International Worldwide, an funding firm run by Giuseppe Castiglione, a Canadian conman making an attempt to get a foothold within the UK.

His advertising and marketing centred on a signed letter and photograph from then Prime Minister John Main. No 10 confirmed each had been freely accessible at commerce gala’s and weren’t in any method backing for Castiglione.

He wrote to his traders describing me as a ‘sick, vindictive, unknowledgeable and uninformed ass’ who collected data from readers about their funds then offered it to the taxman.

I’ve framed his letter and it is in my workplace. In 1997, Castiglione tried once more, registering a number of impressive-sounding UK corporations, none with real property, earlier than making an attempt to promote shares in them. I sounded the alarm once more and his corporations had been shut down.

5. The serial fraudster

Chris Ineson got here up with enterprise concepts that may have labored. As a substitute of growing them he offered franchises in corporations that did not exist. You may be an space franchisee for his scheme to fly NHS sufferers overseas for remedy, avoiding NHS queues. However he had no planes, no medical workers and no intention of getting them.

I warned towards a number of of his schemes between 1995 and 2002, when he was jailed for five-and-a- half years for fraud. I appeared on a TV programme about him and he mentioned my reward for his concepts (however not the scams) raised his repute in jail. We’re nonetheless in contact.

6. Warning listing victory

The Monetary Providers Authority (FSA) had the ability to ban individuals from the regulated finance sector however refused to make its listing public. So I began publishing my very own listing, primarily based on intelligence I obtained. In April 2001, the FSA noticed it was being ridiculed and made its listing public, which it nonetheless is as we speak – due to the MoS.

The identical occurred with the FSA warning listing of unauthorised companies. It refused to call the companies, so I compiled a listing. It took time however in Might 2002 the FSA started publishing its warning listing. That warning listing is now large and is barely on the FSA web site due to the MoS.

7. Betting racket arrests

In 2002 I labored with Royal Gibraltar Police investigating a bogus betting forecast enterprise focusing on UK victims. After I posed as a sufferer and gathered proof, 9 arrests had been made.

8. I get armed safety

In 2005, I warned towards a suggestion of shares in a US stem cell analysis firm known as Regal Applied sciences. There was no signal of a enterprise at its supposed tackle close to Tampa, Florida.

I interviewed a person who answered the corporate’s telephone. He was British and gave his title as Paul Baxter. A number of years later, I used to be known as by police in London, asking for permission to offer my telephone quantity to the US Secret Service, who needed to talk to me. ‘Paul Baxter’ was the ringleader of a share fraud community spanning three continents.

The Secret Service had arrested him in a sting primarily based on Al Pacino’s film Sea of Love, telling him his US citizenship had been accepted and to come back to an official ceremony. On arrival he was arrested. Then in 2013 I used to be flown to Florida to offer proof on the trial of Paul Gunter – his actual title – who was as soon as a Hertfordshire monetary adviser. I obtained armed safety.

One other UK witness was a widow from Huddersfield whose husband dedicated suicide after dropping all the pieces to Gunter’s rip-off. There have been 2,300 victims within the UK alone. It’s estimated victims misplaced £85 million. Gunter obtained 25 years, so he’ll be 89 when launched.

9. The largest UK Ponzi rip-off

Former black cab driver Kevin Foster ran the largest Ponzi rip-off I’ve seen within the UK. He held revivalist-style conferences the place he handed out large prizes. I first wrote about him in 2004. He had an amusing brush-off for each query: I requested for a duplicate of his funding scheme’s accounts – he replied that he did not want to provide accounts as his workplace was papered with cheques!

Former black cab driver Kevin Foster ran an enormous Ponzi rip-off the place he held revivalist-style conferences and handed out large prizes

The following month police raided his Kent farmhouse. In July 2005 he appeared on the Excessive Court docket to defend a chapter petition, owing £36 million to eight,500 traders. Simply as he was about to be declared bankrupt, he known as to the choose that he had one thing vital to point out him. The choose beckoned Kevin ahead, anticipating to be proven proof of monetary backing that may repay collectors. As a substitute, in a stage whisper, he plonked down a photograph and mentioned it was a uncommon albino wallaby.

‘I’ve obtained two of them!’ he mentioned, suggesting he might make thousands and thousands by breeding albino wallabies and everybody can be repaid. The choose could not resolve if he was deranged. He waved Kevin again and declared him bankrupt. In 2007 Kevin was charged with theft and breaches of investor safety legal guidelines. In 2010, I used to be a couple of toes from him when he was sentenced to 10 years. He seemed shocked.

10. ‘Mastermind’ is jailed

Jeffrey Revell-Reade was the Australian mastermind behind a global community of crooked funding companies. My report in 2004 got here with a world map exhibiting his hyperlinks. The largest agency he secretly managed was an authorised London stockbroker, Pacific Continental Securities.

Six years later, in 2010, the Critical Fraud Workplace opened an investigation and in 2014 he was charged with fraud. I acted as a go-between, negotiating between the SFO and a witness who refused to offer proof with out an assurance they might not face motion. I obtained the peace of mind and the SFO obtained the proof from the witness.

About 1,000 traders misplaced £70 million, with JRR making £37million personally. Forward of his trial, the MoS web site took down 40 of my tales as they might have influenced a jury. He was jailed for eight years.

I had revealed that Pacific Continental Securities had fallen underneath JRR’s affect in 2004, however the regulator took no motion. In 2005, I wrote about its sale of high-risk international shares to UK low-risk traders. I recovered £100,000 for a reader who fell sufferer. I warned once more in 2006, reporting that Pac Con paid a reader an enormous sum on situation he stopped speaking to me.

Additionally in 2006, I reported {that a} reader was considering suicide after changing into a Pac Con sufferer. I went to the FSA HQ and handed over greater than 100 letters from cheated readers. In June 2007, the FSA banned Pac Con from taking over new shoppers, successfully placing it out of enterprise. That is believed to be the primary time a member of the London Inventory Alternate has been shut down because of a newspaper investigation. But it surely took till November 2008 for Pac Con to be declared formally in default, with the Monetary Providers Compensation Scheme beginning to settle for claims from victims, estimated to complete £100 million. Later the FCA (the renamed FSA) imposed a lifetime ban on senior Pac Con dealer Jay Rutland, who married Method 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Tamara.

The FCA (renamed FSA) imposed a lifetime ban on senior Pac Con dealer Jay Rutland, who married Method 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Tamara. Pictured collectively in 2013

11. Berlin police raid

I obtained intelligence on Atlantic Capital Companions (ACP), promoting dodgy shares at dodgier costs in 2007. Staffed by British brokers, its gross sales literature was in English and advertising and marketing consisted of gross sales calls to UK traders – but the operation was primarily based and licensed in Berlin. This was as a result of the German regulator was identified to be weak and, on paper, the corporate was headed by two Germans.

Extremely unusually, Metropolis of London Police raided ACP in Berlin and located a traditional ‘boiler room’ of telephones and excessive stress gross sales workers. I adopted officers to Berlin, went to the boiler room and took the 2 Germans to lunch. We mentioned names of those that actually managed ACP and located strings had been pulled by worldwide criminal… Jeffrey Revell-Reade.

12. Downfall of Allen Stanford

In March 2009, I produced a serious story about Sir Allen Stanford, the central determine in a £5.6 billion fraud investigation of his worldwide banking enterprise.

It concerned his political management and affect over Montserrat and Antigua within the West Indies, his knighthood and his £70 million sponsorship and affect over England cricket. I revealed I had investigated him years earlier for a global journal and located he was falsely claiming to run a Texas financial institution when he had no licence there, and that he was operating a bogus London insurance coverage firm in Piccadilly.

The authorities took no discover, allowed him to take digital management of Antigua, and gave him a knighthood. It was the US that ultimately investigated, resulting in Stanford’s conviction and in 2012 to his 110-year jail sentence.

13. Taxman’s menace foiled

I revealed HMRC had launched a brand new tax assortment tactic in April 2011, writing to unhealthy payers and threatening to grab their automotive, TV and so forth – and promote them at public sale for knock-down costs. HMRC was making threats that licensed debt collectors are banned from voicing with out taking courtroom motion.

Two weeks later, I reported that HMRC had admitted it had no authorized proper to grab items and that its threatening letters had been by no means accepted by ministers. I printed a part of a letter obtained by an MoS reader, saying, ‘We are going to view your possessions and listing these we are going to promote at public sale. As soon as listed, your belongings will grow to be the property of HM Income & Customs.’ All completely false. In July 2011, MPs ordered HMRC to scrap the threatening letters.

14. The likeable rogue

I warned towards share funding schemes run by or linked to Tom Wilmot, a Metropolis character who had been operating fringe share dealing companies for many years in 2004.

He was refused authorisation following the 1986 Monetary Providers Act and dropped out of sight for some time, opening a sausage enterprise. The FSA refused to consider what I instructed them, besides to offer Wilmot a non-public warning which he shrugged off. Lastly, in late 2007, the FSA did examine. And sure, there was a critical fraud.

In 2011, he was jailed for 9 years. He was a ‘likeable rogue’ and by no means took my warnings personally. He requested me to go to him in jail, which I did. Whereas there he was recognized with terminal most cancers. Once I final visited, he was wheelchair-bound. I made a non-public strategy to the Dwelling Workplace, asking for his launch on compassionate grounds as there was no hazard of reoffending. I used to be nonetheless in contact with the Prisons Minister when he died. A minimum of he spent his closing days in an out of doors hospital.

15. Carbon credit scandal

In March 2012 I sounded my first warning about investing in carbon credit – mainly, bits of paper that supposedly offset carbon emissions by trade, generally by promising to finance tree planting. There have been two sorts of credit score, one purchased by heavy industries which might doubtlessly promote their little bit of paper on to a special enterprise that wanted to emit extra carbon, and a second sort of ‘voluntary’ credit, purchased by anybody with ‘inexperienced’ sympathies to offset their jet flight to the Costa del Sol.

Fraudsters used advertising and marketing supplies highlighting industrial credit, however truly offered voluntary credit for a lot of occasions their authentic worth, and there was no method for traders to show them again into money.

Metropolis of London Police invited an MoS photographer and me to hitch them in a raid on one of many rip-off companies, leading to 11 arrests. On the workplace housing the rip-off telephone room, we had been warned the primary carry opened instantly into the telephone room, so we had been instructed to take a second carry, as the primary carry stuffed with uniformed police had gone up. The police carry stopped on intervening flooring. Ours did not and the carry doorways opened to seek out us going through crooks simply as shocked as we had been!

In December 2012, the FCA opened investigations into 77 carbon credit score gross sales companies. Early in 2013, I put extra jigsaw puzzle items of intelligence collectively and linked each rip-off carbon credit score agency to at least one firm, Carbon Impartial Investments – authorised by the FCA. The watchdog took no motion and some months later one of many carbon credit score companies I would named within the paper collapsed, costing victims £18 million.

In November 2013, the Authorities awoke, asserting Excessive Court docket motion to wind up 19 carbon credit score corporations. I provided handy over my listing of 90 extra corporations. In 2017, one carbon credit score scamster, Brett Jolly from Southend, was banned as a director for 11 years. I would warned in 2013 that his firm falsely claimed Chancellor George Osborne was guaranteeing traders would make a revenue. I discovered Jolly was a serial offender who as soon as falsely claimed to personal the world’s greatest diamond.

In 2021, the ringleader I would named eight years earlier Paul Seakens appeared at Southwark Crown Court docket. I used to be a witness as I would questioned him for the paper. He was linked to 74 carbon credit score dealing companies and proof confirmed £30 million handed by way of his accounts. The FCA didn’t take away his authorisation till 4 years after my first alert. Seakens was jailed for 13 years and I obtained a commendation from the choose.

16. Homicide by hitmen

In 2010 I reported that the FSA was struggling to maintain Lithuania’s Financial institution Snoras and its Russian boss Vladimir Antonov out of Britain.

I revealed the financial institution had been linked at one time to the Russian Mafia however Antonov took cost in 2002 and in 2006 it purchased a small FSA-authorised financial institution in Leicester. I gained entry to paperwork exhibiting Antonov additionally ran a Russian financial institution and had lied to the FSA, saying that this financial institution was a part of a deposit safety scheme.

Among the many paperwork was a letter to the FSA from the Deputy Chairman of the Financial institution of Russia. This alleged an absence of cash laundering controls at Antonov’s Russian financial institution. Antonov’s legal professionals tried to get the letter thrown out forward of an FSA tribunal listening to to contemplate Financial institution Snoras’s licence. The following step was to get the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s central financial institution to come back to London and provides proof. However he was shot lifeless by two hitmen.

The end result was that Financial institution Snoras received the suitable to a UK presence, utilizing the EU rule that anybody with a licence in a single EU nation have to be ‘passported’ into all different EU nations that it needs.

As soon as within the UK, Antonov took over Portsmouth FC, with grand plans for enlargement, however deserted it months later, with the membership collapsing into administration.

In 2014 I reported that he was to be extradited to Lithuania to face £402 million fraud fees. Antonov then vanished after dropping an extradition enchantment. In 2019, he was jailed for fraud in Russia.

18. Bushes are rising rip-off

Bushes have usually been used because the product in funding scams. They take years to mature and are sometimes mentioned to be rising abroad, leaving traders at nighttime for a really very long time earlier than they discover the timber both do not exist, are of low worth or have been offered to multiple investor.

International Forestry Investments (GFI) was run by Andrew Skeene and Omari Bowers from South London. In 2009, I warned towards an earlier rip-off by Skeene and in 2011 I mentioned he was behind GFI, providing 12 per cent returns on timber in South America.

GFI responded by opening a pretend Fb web page in my title, with me supposedly confessing to tax offences. In 2018, I reported the pair had been banned as administrators for ten years, after the Insolvency Service discovered that of £24 million put into the corporate by traders, £13 million was pocketed by the pair. In June 2022 I reported that that they had been convicted of conspiracy to defraud and jailed for 11 years. By the point of their trial, the sum misplaced by 2,000 traders was put at £37million.

19. Disgrace of royal visitor

In 2019 I uncovered Freddie Achom, linking him to a wine funding swindle and reporting his background which included a yr in jail and a directorship ban.

He had subsequently reinvented himself as a profitable ethnic minority businessman, gaining invites to Downing Avenue, and so forth. We printed an image of him with PM David Cameron. Every week later I reported how a consumer’s £70,000 wine funding had gone lacking – and we printed an image of Achom with then Prince Charles’s spouse Camilla at a St James’s Palace reception. I requested: does nobody vet royals’ visitors? Subsequently, his wine firm collapsed and liquidators might discover solely 15 to twenty per cent of the wine it was purported to have in storage for shoppers.

20. The nice artwork rip-off

Luke Sparkes had borrowed virtually £500,000 from his firm, Smith and Associate, an artwork funding agency

Simply earlier than Christmas in 2022, I uncovered Smith and Associate, an artwork funding firm, after it cheated an aged investor out of £17,000. It marketed massively overpriced prints with exaggerated predictions of large income.

I revealed its boss Luke Sparkes had borrowed virtually £500,000 from his firm, on prime of different drawings. I warned that S&P was mendacity that it’s regulated by an artwork commerce physique, when actually it was expelled from that physique. I printed an additional warning after S&P purchased off a reader who requested for my assist. In June 2023 I reported that S&P has gone into liquidation. I denounced it as a multi-million-pound rip-off. Police are nonetheless investigating complaints.