Fraud-friendly Britain will not pursue crooks who cheated you of £10,000

M.P. writes: At the beginning of April last year, I invested £10,000 in sustainable energy bonds marketed by Whitehorse Finance. The bonds were to mature in April this year, but now I find I cannot contact the firm, nor do I know how to report this issue. YOU could not have known, unfortunately, that last year I was already investigating this scam. Three weeks after you invested, I warned that there was a whole series of false claims in the way these interestbearing bonds were sold.

Whitehorse Finance was a trading name used by a company called Prime Guard Ltd, owned and run by Tashfeen Mogul, who also used the names Whitehorse Bonds and Whitehorse Capital. He claimed: ‘For over a decade, Whitehorse Capital has provided investment and wealth management to individuals, families, groups and institutions.’

This was a lie. Mogul also claimed that investors’ funds were safe, because: ‘All investments made with the Whitehorse Finance Group are asset backed against company assets which include gold, cash and real estate.’ Another lie.

And if all else failed, Mogul added: ‘Our Wealth Protection Scheme will be utilised to cover any shortfall.’

But of course this was a lie as well, just like his claim that his firm – barely a year old – had 2,300 investors and managed £127million of investments. All of these lies add up to the criminal offence of fraud, but frauds like this are rarely investigated now. Spotting a prosecution is like seeing Elvis at the supermarket.

Investor Mark Taber runs an online campaign to expose firms such as Whitehorse. Last week he reported three more to the Financial Conduct Authority, but he told me: ‘This takes the number I have reported so far this year to more than 350, yet still no effective action is being taken to prevent the adverts from appearing or to prosecute those behind them.’

The watchdog has become like a failed state, not just incapable of exercising power, but dangerous in that it gives the public the illusion of safety with none in reality.

What happened to Prime Guard? Earlier this year it was struck off by Companies House, though the name has recently been registered for a new, unconnected business.

Mogul told Companies House he had handed control to a man named Storey. However, our weak laws do not oblige crooks or anyone else to give their address in public records.

In fact, you can use any old name and address to set up a company, which is why we are one of the most fraud-friendly nations in the world.

In short then, you will not see your £10,000 again. You could report all this to the police, and even give them a copy of my warning from last year. But nothing will happen.