"Ponzi scheme" fraudster who made £11.5m from retired people is jailed
Steven Long and his co-defendant targeted 115 victims
A fraudster who took £11.5 million from 115 victims in a "Ponzi scheme" targeting retired people has been jailed.
The offending of Steven Long, 59, and his co-defendant Raymond Simpson, 79, came to light after the former’s wealth management business group Universal collapsed in 2018.
Homeowners of or near retirement age were lured in by Universal’s marketing seminars, which offered to manage and protect trust funds for inheritance planning.
Long, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court today (17 July).
Independent financial adviser Simpson – not a formal Universal staff member but described as “the primary mover in the deals” – did not attend his trial or sentencing.
Simpson lives in Portugal, and a warrant for his arrest has been issued.
The judge said many of the victims will find it a “bitter irony” that Simpson’s Portuguese home was paid for by a house sale and his wife’s inheritance.
Jailing Long for eight years and four months, Judge Gregory Perrins said: “Your offending has taken a very heavy toll on the lives of so many and you should feel deeply ashamed.”
He added: “No sentence I impose today will feel long enough to those who have suffered so much.”
Simpson was sentenced to five and a half years and Judge Perrins said he had assisted Long by using money taken from trust accounts to “invest in a series of increasingly reckless investments”.
A total of £11,574,814 of client money was lost by Universal, for which Long, 59, is ultimately responsible and has been charged over, prosecutor Charlene Sumnall told the court.
Of that sum, Simpson, 79, has been charged with defrauding £785,380 through investments and £615,000 by buying land in Spain.
The judge told Long: “You knew that you were using money held in trust for others so that you and your family could enjoy a lifestyle that is out of reach for most ordinary people.”
David Cunningham lost all £140,000 of his late wife's savings after allowing Long access.
Mr Cunningham, who was married to his wife for 42 years, said: “I feel ashamed, guilty about my incompetence, suspicious of people, unhappy, tense, saddened, nervous about making most decisions.
“I have completely failed my wife and children, which I cannot undo.”
Long “robbed” Mr Cunningham’s children “of their mother’s legacy”, the court heard, and he said: “Even now after more than 10 years, I still quite often wake up in the night… feeling like a complete failure.
“I also know that this guilt and shame … shall never end, and I hope my wife, Christine, will forgive me when we meet again.
“I had made an appointment to see my doctor and I was going to request sleeping tablets on the pretext that I couldn’t sleep, however, my daughter found out and informed the doctor of my intent.
“In hindsight, I am glad she did as it would have been a selfish act.”
There are 115 direct victims in the case but “behind each and every one” is a family and others who have suffered, the judge said.