Brothers in £6m metal share scam are jailed
TWO halfbrothers who cheated 350 victims out of £6.2million in a series of investment scams have each been jailed for one year at Birmingham Crown Court.
Craig Brooks, 37, and Marvin Brooks, 36, pleaded guilty to ‘engaging in a misleading commercial practice’. Charges of conspiracy to defraud will remain on police files.
The pair – both from Sutton Coldfield – were behind Bric Global Limited, Citygate Capital Limited and Rare Earth Commodities Limited.
The three companies operated between June 2011 and July 2013, offering investments in carbon credits and in industrial metals used in batteries and magnets.
However, there was no market that allowed buyers to turn their investments back into cash. Both men have been in my files for some years. I warned against Marvin Brooks as long ago as 2007, when he was linked to a shady German stockbroking firm called FSW that coldcalled British investors with offers of high risk shares.
In 2009, the brothers set up Cavendish Land & Property Investments, selling plots of land in Brazil with the false claim that they would double in value when developed as a beach resort. When this business attracted police attention, they abandoned it and opened Bric Global.
Officers from the City of London Police have recovered £500,000 from the crooks and hope to seize a further £300,000 in assets. All this will be handed over to the victims. Detective Sergeant Marek Coghill said: ‘The financial loss to over 350 victims in this case is substantial, but the toll that this type of cynical and indiscriminate crime can take is far greater.’
Craig Brooks once worked for a legitimate finance company and despite his record of scams, his conviction and imprisonment, he still appears on the Financial Conduct Authority’s register of authorised advisers with an unblemished record.