Retirement investment scheme defrauded 115 victims

A man has pleaded guilty to fraud after elderly and other victims invested more than £11m in retirement and care schemes.

Steven Long, 59, of Kesgrave, near Ipswich, appeared before Southwark Crown Court last week charged with two counts of fraud by abuse of trust spanning a period of more than 10 years.

According to fraud investigators from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU), he told some 115 customers across England he was investing in low-risk schemes, but put people's savings in unsustainable higher-risk schemes without their knowledge.

Long, of Mead Drive, was remanded into custody and will be sentenced at the same court on 13 March.

ERSOU said the victims were from several counties including Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Kent and their losses amounted to £11,577,762.

Between 2008 and 2018, Long ran several businesses under the banner of Universal Wealth Preservation and victims were encouraged to attend presentations and seminars at hotels.

ERSOU said thousands of clients set up trusts and wills and entered into Lasting Power of Attorney agreements, often to benefit their relatives in the future.

Many of the victims were elderly and vulnerable and had been promised generous returns as Long assured them their money would be placed into ring-fenced, risk-free, long-term trusts, ERSOU said.

However, Long used the money to fund high-risk, overseas investments without their consent.

Investigators said that as Long's business model became financially unsustainable, clients were denied access to their investments. In some cases, funds set aside to pay for elderly care home fees were lost, and several victims learned they had been defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

As well as this, investment fraud investigators said Long used significant amounts of money to fund extravagant personal expenses for himself and those closest to him, as well as to pay staff salaries.

Long was first arrested in April 2018 by Suffolk Police before an investigation was led by ERSOU.

Det Con Lisa Hunt, who led ERSOU's investigation, said Long had presented himself as the "consummate professional, seemingly backed by accreditation for practitioners in the trust and estate sector" and many placed their "full trust" in him.

"Long callously exploited that trust for his own gain, leaving victims and their loved ones facing devastating financial and emotional consequences," she added.

"Some lost the security they had spent a lifetime building, with money set aside for retirement or essential care simply wiped out."

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