Three men jailed over £70m pension fraud scheme
Three men have been sentenced to a combined total of 15 years and nine months in prison after they swindled more than 3,000 investors—including many retirees—out of £70 million through a seven-year deception. The fraudsters tricked victims into transferring their retirement funds into a counterfeit forestry investment program supposedly based in Costa Rica. The operation relied on a sophisticated cold-calling strategy, with call center employees in Bournemouth using fabricated identities and fake company affiliations to establish credibility before pressuring victims into investments.
Matthew Pickard (56), Stephen Greenaway (47), and Paul Laver (47) pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in January, ahead of a scheduled trial. Pickard was given six years, Greenaway received five years and three months, and Laver was sentenced to four years and six months. All three were also barred from serving as company directors for a decade, a restriction designed to prevent them from exploiting similar vulnerabilities in future schemes.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) told Southwark Crown Court that the former directors ran a Bournemouth-based call centre through Ethical Forestry over a seven-year period, cold-calling members of the public and persuading them to transfer pension savings into a tree-planting scheme in Costa Rica. SFO investigators found that employees used false company names and concealed their true employer to gain victims’ trust before encouraging them to invest. Although trees were planted in Costa Rica, no money was set aside to maintain or harvest them, meaning investors could not generate the returns they had been promised.
The Serious Fraud Office uncovered that the operation ran through a Bournemouth call center operating under the name Ethical Forestry. They fabricated company identities and hid their true affiliation to build trust before persuading victims to invest. Investigators confirmed that the Costa Rican operation lacked proper oversight, leaving investors with no recourse to recover their funds despite the promised ecological benefits.
Fraudsters Flashed Luxury Lifestyles with Stolen Millions
Prosecutors discovered that the fraudsters spent millions of the stolen money on luxury lifestyles, including luxury vehicles, trips across Europe and Asia, and high-value properties. Greenaway bought a £1.9m home, while Pickard purchased a £4.3m property in Sandbanks, Poole. A further £2.77m of investor money was diverted to administer a tax avoidance scheme for the directors’ own benefit. The defendants’ lavish spending contrasted sharply with the financial devastation suffered by victims, many of whom had relied on their pension savings for retirement security.
Graham McNulty, director of the SFO, said: “These former directors preyed on people’s good intentions to support a ‘green’ investment, stealing £70m from hard-earned life savings and pensions.” He added: “Our thorough investigation exposed this fraudulent scheme, and the strength of our evidence led us to secure three guilty pleas, resulting in today’s sentence. This is an important step towards justice.”
Retirees Left Ruined by ‘Green’ Investment Scam
Despite the convictions, the financial harm to victims remains devastating. Many of those targeted were retirees who had spent years saving for retirement, only to lose their entire savings. The scheme demonstrated how fraudsters can deceive individuals, especially when offering investments that appear morally sound, such as environmental projects.
The fraud began with unsolicited calls pressuring victims into a “pensions review” before steering them toward Ethical Forestry. The operation promised substantial returns from a Costa Rican forestry project, but lacked regulatory supervision to verify its legitimacy. Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at AJ Bell, said the case was “a horrible reminder of how criminals can destroy people’s retirement prospects, and why it’s so important to protect ourselves from scammers”.
She said the scheme involved cold-calling investors and persuading them to take part in a “pensions review”, before recommending they invest in Ethical Forestry, which was presented as an environmentally sound forestry scheme in Costa Rica. Coles warned that the case reflected a wider pattern of scammers offering high-risk, unregulated investments with “sky-high returns”. She said investors may have little or no protection where investments are not regulated by the FCA or covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Five Red Flags to Spot Pension Scams
Coles outlined five key red flags in pension scams:
- Unsolicited approaches about pension reviews
- Promises of early access to pension savings
- Guaranteed or unusually high returns
- Firms or individuals that cannot be verified as FCA-regulated
- Pressure to invest quickly
Investors who suspect they may have been targeted by similar schemes are advised to contact the SFO or the Financial Conduct Authority for guidance. The case serves as a reminder of the importance of verifying investment opportunities before committing funds, particularly when approached through cold calls or unsolicited communications.
