Guest post by Neil Bromage, writer and journalist
Unlawful property investment schemes have now failed in huge numbers across the UK. Hotel rooms, student accommodation, rooms in care homes, storage pods and car parking spaces have all been sold unlawfully to unwitting investors. At one point, even burial plots were being sold in this way.
Billions of pounds have been taken from small, unsophisticated investors, in many cases from their pension or retirement nest eggs. Promised high-level returns, many of those investors now face retirement in penury.
It is now widely acknowledged that virtually all these property developments are unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS) and therefore unlawful.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is currently investigating and prosecuting the first culprits. Others will follow in their wake as the Serious Fraud Office has also now stepped in with concerns about fraud and money laundering as schemes almost inevitably turn into Ponzis.
Schemes like this should have been authorised by the FCA. In not doing so, a whole range of offences have been committed and are now coming to light. At the same time, many schemes still exist and continue to be marketed by unscrupulous sales teams in the full knowledge that they are UCIS. It naturally follows that some lawyers are still prepared to act for those buying into the schemes.
The SRA has carried advice and…
