A son picking through his late father’s investment documents – rather than the regulator – was what first flagged IFA Martin Rigney had forged his clients' signatures to pocket commission.
Tens of thousands of pounds of Mr Rigney’s clients’ cash was lost after it was invested into a fund which was suspended.
Mr Rigney used to trade under Topps Rogers Financial Management and his clients were generally retired and some have since died.
Their funds were invested in the Poland Geared Growth Property fund.
Clients were originally advised to invest via Royal Skandia bonds with a safe, non-risky spread of investments in various funds, before Mr Rigney forged signatures and switched investments to the Polish fund.
During a 10-week long case prosecuting barrister Martin Hurst stressed the latter fund was an unregulated collected investment scheme and unsuitable for the vast majority of Mr Rigney’s clients who required safe, non-risk investments to help pay school fees, cover the cost of nursing homes or to provide money to live on.
Mr Hurst said this kind of product could only be marketed to high-net worth individuals and was completely unsuitable for Mr Rigney’s clients.
He claimed money originally placed into a Royal Skandia bond and then into the Curzon Capital Investment Poland Geared Growth fund yielded £371,149 as Mr Rigney’s commission income for advising people to go into the Polish fund.
But the Polish fund was suspended in 2008, nobody could get their money out and they lost their cash, according to Mr Hurst.
Mr Hurst said: “Mr Rigney was not concerned about getting clients to sign documents and he would sign them on their behalf. Signing them or forging their signatures on letters telling him what to do or on documents about knowing your client.”
He added: “The reason, the prosecution say he was forging clients’ signatures, was to hide from them what he was doing.
Rather than the Financial Services Authority first spotting his activities and reporting it to the police, FTAdviser can exclusively reveal Derbyshire Police’s investigation of Mr Rigney – an adviser who had worked in the industry for more than 20 years - began when a complaint was made to West Yorkshire Police in June 2012 by the son of a couple of his clients.
The son, whose father had recently died, was concerned because he had noticed some of his parents’ signatures were “not quite right” on the documentation they had received from Mr Rigney since 2006.
The son also noticed an investment was taken out and put in both his father’s and mother’s name two weeks after his Dad had died.
As Mr Rigney was based in Derbyshire, the complaint was forwarded by West Yorkshire Police to Derbyshire Police in June 2012 and Detective Constable Julie Wheeldon (pictured) was put in charge of checking on his activities.
In an exclusive interview with FTAdviser, Det Con Wheeldon said: “The difficulty was he had a lot of clients so we initially sent out a questionnaire to all of those we were aware of.
“We got a number of responses back and of those responses we saw those clients who we identified as possibly having their signatures forged or that there was something wrong with their investments.
“His clients tended to be elderly. A lot were from the Derbyshire and South Yorkshire area but there were clients in other areas of the UK as well.”
The difficulty was he had a lot of clients so we initially sent out a questionnaire to all of those we were aware of.Det Con Julie WheeldonThe police suspected 22 counts of fraud. Last week the 68-year-old of King Edwards, Rivelin in Sheffield, was found guilty of 16 counts of fraud.
He was remanded into custody and will be sentenced on 1 September.
When asked why had it taken five years to secure Mr Rigney’s conviction, Det Con Wheeldon said: “There were a lot of inquiries initially and then conversations with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which led us on to further investigations.
“He was investigated by the Department of Business as well and while that was ongoing we were doing various inquiries.
"It came to the point where he was charged and then I went on maternity leave. The barrister wouldn’t run a trial without me as the officer in charge of the case, which meant we had to wait a bit longer.”
The Financial Services Authority banned Mr Rigney in October 2012 and Det Con Wheeldon said the information from the regulator – and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme – was “invaluable” when it came to securing his conviction.
Det Con Wheeldon said: “We didn’t run our investigations together but the information they provided did assist us.”
By the time Mr Rigney was struck off by the FSA, his company had gone into liquidation. When asked had his clients received any of the cash they invested through Mr Rigney back, Det Con Wheeldon said “some have.”
While he had been a financial adviser for more than two decades, Det Con Wheeldon said the activities that caught her attention started around 2006.
She said: “The reason he committed this crime was for the commission.
“This was quite unique in terms of forgery offences.
“When we interviewed him he gave explanations but denied all the offences.”
During the trial the court heard how Mr Rigney forged the signature of a dementia sufferer Mary Dawson, of Rotherham, and her daughter who had power of attorney so he could allegedly invest £76,000 of their money into the Polish fund when the daughter had been planning to use their investment to cover her now deceased mother’s nursing home costs.
Client Elaine Beresford, of Buxton, also claimed her signature was forged and she had no knowledge of ever agreeing to invest £70,000 into the Polish fund.
Frederick and Joan Davy also claimed to have had £220,000 switched to the Polish fund without their knowledge and with forged signatures.
Further clients Paul and Deborah Gregory, who emigrated to Australia, had the vast bulk of their £400,000 investment moved into the Polish fund with sustained forged signatures and they claim they were never consulted.
Client Edward Hooton had £300,000 invested in the Polish fund with alleged forged signatures and much of it was lost after he had stated he did not want a risky investment.
Peter Keen queried how £80,000 of his money had been relocated into the Polish fund with alleged forged signatures, according to Mr Hurst, and Mr Rigney allegedly apologised.
Nitin and Shipla Kohle had approached Mr Rigney to help with a £120,000 investment to support school fees with money from a remortgaged property but they ended up with 70 per cent of their money in the Polish fund with an alleged forged signature.
emma.hughes@ft.com
