Mail Online

Fraudster I warned about in 2013 gets 13 years in jail

THE ringleader behind a £30 million investment fraud has been jailed for 13 years following a 16-week trial.

Paul Seakens, 60, from Enfield in North London, was at the centre of a network of scam companies that sold carbon credits as investments.

Police say 73 fraudulent brokers used Seakens to launder money from victims. They sold carbon credit certificates that were said to be in demand by i ndustries t o allow t hem to release carbon into the atmosphere. But the certificates were not those used by industries and there was no market to allow investors to turn their pieces of paper back into cash.

The crooks bought the certificates for pennies and sold them with mark- ups of as much as 1,000 per cent, making it impossible for their victims to profit, even if there had been a two-way market.

As well as controlling Carbon Neutral Investments Ltd – the company at the heart of the scam – Seakens and Luke Ryan, 33, from Eastleigh in Hampshire joined forces to operate Enviro Associates Ltd.

This sales operation, based in Winchester, raked in about £2 million. Ryan, who was already banned from working in any authorised investment firm after earlier scams, was sentenced to six years.

At Southwark Crown Court in Central London, Her Honour Judge Cahill QC told Seakens, a former stockbroker: ‘Not a single word that comes from you can be trusted.’

And she asked Ryan: ‘How did your conscience ever let you take thousands of pounds from innocent and trusting members of the public?’

The convictions and sentences follow an investigation lasting eight years, carried out by the City of London Police and officers in Hampshire.

Judge Cahill commended the police, including Detective Constable Kip Malek, who was at the court throughout the trial, which began in January.

The judge also commended me for carrying out The Mail on Sunday investigation published in March 2013, warning against Seakens and his scam. Evidence uncovered then, including the 2013 article, was given as prosecution evidence at the trial.

Seakens’ firm, Carbon Neutral Investments, was authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Its licence was cancelled in March 2017, four years after The Mail on Sunday’s warning.

However, Seakens, though he is now in jail, still appears on the FCA’s public register of financial advisers with a note saying simply that he no longer works in a job that needs FCA approval, and that he has faced no disciplinary action.

Personal Finance

en-gb

2021-06-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/284374087303965

dmg media (UK)