Carbon criminal lands in prison

LIES Aaron Petrou Two of the worst investment scams I come across involve landbanking and carbon credits – and Aaron Petrou was up to his neck in both.

He has just been jailed for three years and eight months after admitting conspiracy to defraud, as the Mirror reported yesterday.

The charlatan used the fake name Giles Beaumont to flog carbon credits – worthless so-called green investments – to unsuspecting members of the public, while working for a firm called Taylor & Mills Ltd.

Officers from the Complex Fraud Unit of the Metropolitan Police nailed him after finding his fingerprints on documents sent to victims.

The fraud netted £1.7million from 70 people, and investigating officer Det Sgt Richard Ward said that Petrou and the rest of his gang “showed a complete disregard for the financial loss and emotional impact on the victims of the scam”.

I can reveal that 49-year-old Petrou, from Orpington, Kent, was also a key figure at Plott UK, a sham that conned investors with lies about how slices of fields were prime development opportunities. In fact, the plots had little or no value. In 2015 Petrou was jailed for five years for his role in the land fraud that cost its victims £4.3million.

But he’s not the only link between the two scams.

Daniel Forthsyth, 34, from Bromley, Kent, was jailed for four years and four months for the carbon credit scam, having previously got two years for the Plott UK landbank fraud. A dirty double act has surfaced consisting of a man who preys on houses where the elderly live and spins a story about a drainage problem in the back garden. While the resident is distracted, an accomplice sneaks in and pours water on the floor.

In Beckenham, south London, an 89-year-old woman was about to withdraw £4,000 from her NatWest account to fix the supposed leak when alert staff stepped in and contacted trading standards.

The same bogus builder tried the stunt on a 91-year-old, who fortunately went to a neighbour for help.

Bromley Councillor Kate Lymer, executive councillor for public protection and safety, described the pair as despicable, and urged residents to report all similar incidents.

“The simple advice here is not to deal with cold callers and never let them in your house, even if they appear to be plausible,” she said.