Our client had responded to an advertisement in a national newspaper regarding a potential investment opportunity which ultimately resulted in him losing his life savings. Our client had been persuaded to purchase bonds to the value of £100,000 which were due to yield a minimum profit of £12,000 at the end of the twelve-month term. As is often the case, prior to the agreed term finishing our client was made a further “offering” by the fraudsters as he was a “preferred” client. Needless to say, this involved our client losing a further £100,000 and additional fees amounting to around a further £25,000.
Unfortunately, our client had not undertaken any due diligence into the company offering the investment or the named persons. Adding insult to injury, the fraudster dealing directly with our client orchestrated a parallel fraud whereby he had pleaded poverty and extenuating circumstances and relieved our client of a further £8,000.
Having reported matters to the police, the authorities declined to investigate the series of events but did record it as a crime. The victim contacted Vanguard and we commenced an investigation, some 14 months after the offences had taken place. We were able to adduce evidence that the addresses were bogus and had not been connected to the alleged investment company.
We at Vanguard positively identified a number of individuals who were concerned in the fraud who had a number of previous convictions for dishonesty and advanced fee fraud. Matters were again referred to the fraud squad in Hertfordshire who utilised our evidence in the ongoing investigation with two individuals awaiting trial.
