Two brothers who defrauded up to £17.5m from more than 200 elderly and vulnerable clients through their financial advice business were convicted today (6 March).
Alan and Russell Taylor, from Norwich, ran Taylor & Taylor Associates and targeted retirees, or those approaching retirement, to persuade them to invest in a high-risk scheme called the Vantage Trader fund.
The men would tell their victims the scheme was a safer investment than the savings they already had, but in reality it was high risk and the clients' money was placed in contracts for difference.
Contracts for difference are essentially contracts between an investor and an investment bank or a spread-betting firm.
At the end of the contract, the parties exchange the difference between the opening and closing prices of a specified financial instrument, including shares or commodities.
Taylor & Taylor owned the fund in question so were making money from these investments but failed to pass this information on to their clients.
Alan and Russell Taylor took over their father's business and used his client lists to target victims who trusted them to invest their money wisely.Anamarie CoomansinghAnamarie Coomansingh, a specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Alan and Russell Taylor took over their father's business and used his client lists to target victims who trusted them to invest their money wisely.
"The scheme they chose was not a surety to increase pension pots, as the Taylors told their victims, but was similar to gambling their clients' futures on the spin of a roulette wheel.
"One victim unknowingly invested £200,000 in the scheme and was left with just over half of that amount. Others had to take up part-time jobs to help them through retirement as a result of the impact on their finances.
"The CPS was able to show that the advice given by the Taylors to their victims was anything but honest and was instead designed to line their own pockets. Faced with this, the defendants entered guilty pleas."
In total, more than £17.2m was invested in the Vantage Fund between 2008 and 2015, Norwich Crown Court was told.
The defendants spent their profits on hiring a private jet for more than £150,000, a boat worth more than £50,000 and an exclusive timeshare costing £260,000.
They also bought several expensive Patek Philippe and Rolex watches worth tens of thousands of pounds each.
Both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and will be sentenced at King's Lynn Crown Court on 30 April.
damian.fantato@ft.com
