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Crime Solicitors

Court issues £1 confiscation order in pyramid scam case (16 July 2015)

Date: 16/07/2015
Duncan Lewis, Crime Solicitors, Court issues £1 confiscation order in pyramid scam case

The promoter of a £21 million pyramid investment scam has been ordered by a court to repay just £1.

BBC News reports that Rita Lomas of Whitchurch in Bristol made a £40,000 profit by encouraging people to join the Give and Take (G&T) pyramid scheme between May 2008 and April 2009.

Investors were encouraged to “beg, steal or borrow” the money to invest in the “foolproof” investment scheme. Around 88% of investors lost between £3,000 and £15,000 after expecting to receive £23,000 in profit.

Committee members running the scheme earned around £92,000 each. A total of 11 women aged between 35 and 70 have became the first in the UK to be prosecuted for a pyramid investment scheme, under legislation from the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Act 2008.

Out of the group, six were convicted of operating and promoting the pyramid scheme, while Lomas and two others were convicted of promoting it.

Lomas had previously been sentenced to a four-and-a-half-month suspended prison sentence, after she admitted her part in the scheme.

Judge Mark Horton at Bristol Crown Court told Lomas:

“By agreement, I assess the benefit that you had from your criminal conduct at £40,455.93.
“It is agreed between the parties that your realisable assets amount for the purposes of this amount to £1.
“I therefore order confiscation in the order of £1 and £1 only.”

He added that should her financial circumstances improve, she would be required to repay whole or part of any money she earned or made.

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