Heartbroken widower felt like ‘complete failure’ after cruel £11.5m scam | UK | News

Fraudsters swindled £11.5 million from 115 victims in a “Ponzi scheme” targeting pensioners, a court heard. The crimes of Steven Long and co-defendant Raymond Simpson came to light following the collapse of Long’s asset management business group Universal in 2018.

Their marketing plan targeted homeowners who were at or approaching retirement age, offering to manage and preserve trust funds for estate planning. It was learned that Simpson was in Portugal and did not attend his hearing or Friday’s sentencing. Although he was not employed by Universal, he was described as “the main actor in the deals”. Long, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, attended Southwark Crown Court proceedings. Both will be sentenced later Friday. Charlene Sumnall said Long, 59, was ultimately responsible for £11,574,814 of customer money lost by Universal.

Simpson, 79, is accused of defrauding £785,380 of the total through investments and £615,000 by buying land in Spain.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by the prosecution, David Cunningham said he lost £140,000 of his late wife’s savings by allowing Long access.

The widower said Long “felt easy prey” when he revealed problems he was having with the Co-Op managing his wife’s estate. In the statement, one of 37 to appear before Judge Gregory Perrins, Mr Cunningham added: “I feel ashamed, guilty about my incompetence, suspicious of people, unhappy, nervous, upset and nervous making most decisions.

“I have completely let my wife and children down and I can’t take that back.”

The court heard Long “stole their mother’s inheritance” from Mr Cunningham’s children. Mr Cunnungham added: “Even now, over 10 years later, I still wake up frequently at night… feeling like a complete failure.

“I also know that this guilt and shame will never end, and I hope my wife Christine will forgive me when we meet again.”

“I made an appointment with my doctor and was going to ask for sleeping pills, using the excuse that I couldn’t sleep, but my daughter found out about this and informed the doctor of my intention,” he continued. “In retrospect, I’m glad he did because it would have been a selfish thing to do.”

“Mr Long and Mr Simpson attempted to enrich themselves using money that did not belong to them,” Ms Sumnall said. “In doing so, they never took into account how the entities they were helping would be affected.”

The prosecutor said there were 115 “direct victims” in this case, but “given that this money represented the inheritance – actual or potential – of some clients and the money is now gone, there are many indirect victims.”

“The fact that these are people who are older, in retirement or close to retirement means that the Crown is saying they are particularly vulnerable,” he added. “Roughly put, they don’t have enough time left to recover the money that was defrauded of them.”

The victims of the crime are described as “overwhelmingly non-wealthy people” who are “often careful, responsible people who have worked tirelessly hard over the years to build modest but extremely significant capital (or) assets.”

Ms Sumnall said she had long “lived and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle”. “(He) lived in a number of expensive rental properties while running the Universal group. He boasted that one of the properties he rented belonged to a Premier League footballer.”

With this money, Long paid for a vacation to Mexico with his then-wife. The court heard he also paid for a timeshare in the same country.

Meanwhile, Ms Long bought a Land Rover and five of her annual tax bills were paid with fake funds. “Buffer” bank accounts have long been used to conceal the source of funds to Ms. Long by transferring funds for a short period of time.

The prosecutor said the money given to Simpson was not hidden. He said he made “clearly inappropriate” investments with clients’ money for personal financial gain. He also said that bank accounts under Simpson’s control were used to channel investment funds and that he knowingly supported these fraudulent schemes.

“There is an element of playing a leading role in a group activity,” he said. “In many bank trades, the evidence supports Mr. Simpson as the primary actor in the deals. He had all the contacts; he specialized in such ‘Loch Ness monster’ schemes.”

The court heard Universal was making a profit until 2013. Simpson was tried and convicted on two counts of fraud, one between January 1, 2014 and April 23, 2018, and the other between May 1, 2015 and April 23, 2018.

Those charges remained on file after Long pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud between July 31, 2008 and April 23, 2018, and between January 1, 2014 and April 23, 2018.