Gang must cough up or do more jail time

1 THE Financial Conduct Authority has won court orders forcing eight fraudsters to hand back a total of £2.19million to victims or face further jail time on top of sentences imposed in 2015.

The gang ran a series of land investment companies that raked in more than £5million from victims, who were told the land would rocket in value when it was developed. But they were actually selling agricultural land with no prospect of development.

Ringleader Scott Crawley was ordered to hand over £627,190 or face a further five-and-a-half years in prison in addition to his eightyear sentence.

Corrupt solicitor Dale Walker, above, has to repay £887,408 or spend an extra three-and-a-half years behind bars when he has finished serving his five-and-ahalf-year sentence.

I warned in 2012 that he was linked to at least six land scams and had been fined £10,000.

2 TWO carbon credits conmen have been banned from running any British firm for 14 years. Lincoln Prevost, 41, of Lewisham, South London, and David Ramsey, 40, from Slough, Berkshire, were behind Diffraction Limited, which went into liquidation in 2014 owing £2.14million.

Both admitted to Insolvency Service investigators their firm made false claims to investors about profits to be made, when there was no market to turn carbon credits back into cash. Investors made a total loss. I warned in March last year that Ramsey had moved on and was boss of Diffraction Diamonds, a Dubai-registered company promoting gemstones as an investment.

As the company trades in Britain, proceedings have been brought in the High Court to have it shut down too.

3 THE boss of a scam publishing firm that claimed to help young people has been disqualified from acting as a company director for 11 years. Roy Hasford, 34, of Ashton-Under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, ran Owl House Northern Limited, which tricked businesses into paying for advice booklets for schools.

Companies complained they were invoiced despite never having agreed to pay for booklets, and the Insolvency Service found major question marks over whether they were produced and delivered.

Close links were found to the Teenage Information Bureau. I revealed this firm as a rip-off in 2013 and it was shut by the High Court a year later. Its boss Gemma Reilly was banned as a director for ten years.