Phillip Harold Boakes, 55 (date of birth, 30/12/1959), of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, was sentenced to 10 years in prison last Friday, after he used false instruments and accepted deposits without authorisation through a Ponzi scheme that went on for numerous years.
In October last year, Boakes admitted that he had accepted deposits without authorisation. Boakes’ early guilty pleas saved him from gaining a sentence lasting 13-14 years.
Boakes used his reputation to mislead investors into thinking he was still an IFA when he in fact wasn’t. As a result, 30 investors intrusted him with over £3.5 million and more than £2.5 million was lost following the collapse of the scheme.
Sentencing Boakes, HHJ Lorraine-Smith, said: “Lives have been changed and life savings have been lost. Boakes and his family lived a lavish lifestyle that he could not begin to afford but for his fraudulent activities,”
While investors lost over £2.5 million, approximately £1.3 million was spent by Boakes on his lifestyle.
Boakes’ scam was run through his company, CurrencyTrader Ltd and encouraged people to invest on the promise of guaranteed annual returns of 20 per cent or more.
However, he was not authorised to accept deposits and the pledge of guaranteed returns was found to be a sham. The ‘returns’ were funded from the deposit itself or from funds received from new investors.
The scam ran from October 2002 to January 2013, where during this time, Boakes admitted that he failed to trade investors’ money as promised, as well as lying about the returns they would make.
FCA’s Acting Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, Georgina Philippou, said Boakes deceived his investors with fraud and forged documents.
“…Boakes took in those who trusted him to invest their money. He promised fantastic returns but, as is so often the case with unauthorised investment schemes, those who invested ended up with significant losses,”
“We will not hesitate to take the strongest action to ensure that consumers are protected and individuals are held to account for actions that undermine the integrity of the financial services industry.”
Boakes pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent trading where he was sentenced to four years for the first count and six to the second count. He also received sentences of four years for three offences of using false instruments and one year for accepting deposits without FCA authorisation. However, due to the discount acquired from his early plea, he will serve a 10 year sentence in total.
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