Five in the dock as savers lose £75m in pension pots
Thursday will see the appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of five individuals charged over an investment scheme involving the sale of storage units. The charges follow
an eight-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which says more than 1,900 investors transferred £75million from their pension savings into the scheme, run by Store First, near Burnley, Lancashire.
The company’s boss, Toby Whittaker, and Stephen Talbot, Stuart Grehan, Terence Wright and Emma Hawkins face charges of conspiracy to defraud. Talbot and Grehan have also been charged with perjury and – alongside an unnamed sixth defendant – the pair are also charged with money laundering.
I reported on Store First in 2013 and after that. Legal restrictions now apply to what can be published.
The SFO alleges that misrepresentations were made, including that investors would receive a guaranteed return from renting out units.
We’re watching you 2
A solicitor closely connected to will writing company Town & Country Law has been suspended from practising law for one month after an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) found his firm – Scunthorpe-based Tyto Law – employed a legal assistant who had been banned from the profession over previous misconduct.
Tyto Law boss Oliver Saxon was granted permission to employ Ben Moore only after assuring the regulator that Moore would work from the firm’s offices
and that Saxon himself would supervise him. Moore was barred from having direct contact with clients. All these conditions were breached, and Moore was in close contact with Town & Country Law, preparing its clients’ wills. When this was discovered, the SRA cancelled its permission for Moore to be employed by Tyto Law.
Town & Country Law is not regulated by the SRA, as preparing wills can be done by anyone with no qualifications needed. If work has to be done by a solicitor, it instructs Tyto Law, whose owner Oliver Saxon runs an offshoot called Town & Country Law (Two Roses) Ltd.
In 2022 I revealed that Town & Country Law’s owner James Scotney obtained a credit licence from the Financial Conduct Authority after failing to declare he served a prison sentence for drug dealing.
And in 2024 I warned that Scotney employed ex-solicitor Jonathan De Vita, who was struck off after his firm massively overcharged clients, falsified records, and used clients’ funds without their permission.
We’re watching you 3
Three fraudsters have been convicted at St Albans Crown Court of running a wine investment scam, following a complex investigation by Trading Standards officials from Hertfordshire County Council. Investigators say victims lost £6million.
Benjamin Cazaly, Greg Assemakis and Dominic D’Sa were behind Imperial Wine & Spirits Merchant Ltd. The wine they supplied had a price mark-up of as much as 400 per cent, making profit impossible for investors. The company’s sales team was made up of young people schooled in telemarketing, and the movie The Wolf Of Wall Street was used as a training film.
Assemakis was previously a director of a similar wine scam business, European Fine Wines Ltd. I revealed in 2013 that two of that company’s bosses were forced to quit after being banned as directors for operating rip-off land investment firms.
It went into liquidation in 2014, with customers’ claims topping £3million. Claimants finally received 1.4p for every £1 owed to them.
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