The Scottish Mail on Sunday

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THE boss of a Londonbase­d currency trading scam exposed by The Mail on Sunday three years ago has been jailed for six years in Dublin after British authoritie­s took no action against him.

Jonathan Chubb, 38, was the sole director of WiseFX Europe Limited. He marketed a computer program with the claim that customers had used it to notch up a 121 per cent return on foreign exchange investment­s.

Advertisem­ents included an article from the Aberdeen Press & Journal that appeared to praise the software. But I warned this was really a paidfor advert in the paper, dressed up to look like a news story. I also revealed that Chubb had a criminal record after pleading guilty to stealing £6,300. While working for a lettings agency he diverted tenants’ rents to his own bank account.

Chubb has now pleaded guilty in Dublin to 34 counts of theft, four counts of deception, six charges of having a forged driving licence and one charge of money laundering. He admitted that he gave customers of WiseFX his bank details, supposedly for currency trading and stole about £18,000.

The court heard that Chubb had 12 previous conviction­s for fraud and theft. A report said he had a ‘difficult upbringing’ as his father Noel was absent. His father was serving a prison sentence for manslaught­er. Chubb’s younger brother Gareth was cleared in Amsterdam last year of attempting to shoot a man in a drugs dispute, but was jailed for six months for possessing a loaded gun.

At an earlier hearing, Jonathan Chubb told the court that despite his criminal record, he was working as a salesman for Paymentsen­se, a London company in the credit card industry. Paymentsen­se – which is fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority – did not respond to invitation­s to comment.

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