Nottinghamshire man jailed for £13 million fraud
More than 50 people lost life savings and money because of Anthony Clark from Radcliffe on Trent
Last updated 7th Aug 2026
A detective is urging investors to always seek independent advice after a Nottinghamshire businessman defrauded over 50 victims out of £13 million.
Anthony Clark promised investors high returns with low risk – but two schemes collapsed, while a Nottinghamshire Police investigation found he'd used some of the investors' money to fund his own lavish lifestyle.
Operation Feathergrass began in September 2021 to investigate claims of investment fraud involving the sale of unregulated investments by Clark, now 59, and his companies Thrive Transformation Ltd and The Alternative Adviser.
The investments were sold between 2017 and 2020 when they ultimately collapsed.
The investigation found he'd used investors' funds to pay out to other investors – similar to a Ponzi scheme. Detectives found he had misappropriated investors' money to the tune of approximately £1.4million for his personal benefit and lied about transferring investors' money out of a failing investment scheme into another to hide the former's collapse.
To gain the trust of victims, he promoted alleged safeguards and insurance to mislead investors into believing the schemes were legitimate and low-risk.
Clark, of Lorne Grove, Radcliffe on Trent, lived a lavish lifestyle beyond his means during this time, using investors' funds to assist in purchasing a £1.9million house in Ruddington and a Porsche – both of which he had to sell as the investment funds collapsed and he tried to recover the losses.
He also used investors' own money to take them on lavish all-expenses paid trips to Dubai and to marquee football and Rugby events, all to maintain the illusion of his success.
There were 56 identified investors, with 22 providing statements. The total losses across the entire fund exceeded £13 million with the losses of those who provided statements amounting to approximately £5.7million.
Clark was jailed for four years and eight months at Nottingham Crown Court on 19 June having pleaded guilty to six offences: two counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of fraud by abuse of position and two counts of making false or misleading statements in relation to the sale of the products.
Recalling the case, Detective Constable Mark Holmes, of Nottinghamshire Police's Economic Crime Unit, said Clark had appeared trustworthy but that the exact opposite was in fact true. He said:
"Throughout the fraud, Clark was living a very lavish lifestyle. I think he wanted to portray the image of wealth and success as it was pivotal to his image.
"At the same time, he told the investors that each of these products was 100% safe and there were insurance policies or trading procedures in place which meant that essentially their money couldn't be lost in its entirety. That assertion was not backed up with any meaningful due diligence and turned out to be wrong, with catastrophic consequences for the investors.
"During the investigation, we found just over £490,000 of investors' money was transferred directly into Anthony Clark's personal bank account, which he then used to pay for quite a sizable extension on his original property. He also paid for deposits for ludicrously expensive holidays to places such as the Maldives – although the Covid pandemic meant he didn't get to go.
"He also bought himself a Porsche and purchased a £1.9 million house, a significant portion of which was funded by investors money. Whilst this was all going on, at the same time he was also funding lavish trips for investors. He took a small group of investors on an all expenses paid trip to Dubai and he was taking people to the rugby at Murrayfield, as well as to Leicester City FC hospitality events. He was clearly presenting an image of somebody who was making a significant amount of money, all of which lent to his credibility."
With so many victims, Det Con Holmes said the cracking the case had been "the challenge of my career so far". He said:
"In terms of how we solved it, a lot of it came down to in-depth analysis of financial records. It certainly took a lot of hard work and reporting of the crime was delayed was because Anthony had in fact taken some steps to recover losses.
"The general sense from the investigation was that whilst he believed the two investment products were legitimate, bigger players than him deceived him.
"When the second and larger investment collapsed in December 2020, he actually took steps to try and recover the lost money by starting a civil case, instructing barristers, instructing digital forensics people to try and get the money back that had been lost. So to the victim, it seemed to them like he was doing everything he could to try and recover all of the lost money.
"But within the victim pool was a small cadre of investors that started to question some of the things that Anthony was telling them and they started to get a bit suspicious, which led to the police investigation.
"What has been pivotal in proving this case has been the digital forensics evidence from both his mobile phone and his laptop. In particular, a WhatsApp thread around the time the first product started to go wrong. Rather than telling people that there were problems getting the money out, he hid that from people before starting another investment product."
A broad range of people lost money – and the impact on their lives is difficult to imagine. Det Con Holmes said:
"Some were quite wealthy, others not so, but across the board the consequences were significant.
"The smallest loss was £10,000 and the highest was £1.7 million from one individual investor. It was devastating for him. His money represented decades of hard work. He then invested that money into these investment products and almost the entirety of everything he'd worked for and built up was lost. By his own words, it's not left him destitute and he still lives a good life. But it's completely altered the course of what his life would have been.
"He wholeheartedly believed that Anthony Clark was working in his best interest to make him huge sums of money. And to find out that that trust had been misplaced has been devastating for him. The impact on all victims has been far-reaching and, in many cases, life-altering as life savings were lost and retirement plans were left in ruins."
Clark had no previous criminal record up until the fraud but Det Con Holmes said his actions in this case meant he deserved a lengthy custodial sentence. Now he is encouraging other investors to be extremely careful when presented with new opportunities. He said:
"The main thing really, from my perspective is don't be pressured into making a decision. Make sure you've done your homework. One of the key features that induced so many into investing was their acquaintance with other people who were already invested and believed their money was growing significantly. This factor, together with Clark's apparent wealth cultivated a trust that he was not worthy of and the reality was that very few victims knew where their money was actually being sent.
"I would implore you to take your time and make a decision based on your own research. Take independent advice, ask plenty of questions and don't take one person's word. Most important of all is, don't put any money in that you can't afford to lose."