SFO freezes LCF property

FRAUD investigators have reportedly blocked four men at the heart of a huge savings scandal from selling properties worth £12m.

The Serious Fraud office has obtained freezing orders against the properties as part of its investigation into the collapse of investment company london Capital & Finance (lCF), which went bust earlier this year owing £237m to 11,500 customers.

It is not known on what basis the SFo obtained these orders.

However, it is able to stop the sale of assets if they belong to people suspected of making money from criminal behaviour.

land Registry records show there are restraint orders on properties owned by lCF boss Andy Thomson as well as the families of three other men closely connected to the scandal, according to the london Evening Standard.

They are Spencer Golding, patron of a horse-riding stables business which was given multi-millionpound loans from lCF; and Simon Hume-Kendall and Elten Barker, who ran firms which were handed savers’ funds.

Several of the properties hit by orders are said to be luxury homes worth more than £2m.