Pension Advice

jmsjt

Two financial advisers who convinced hundreds of vulnerable pension holders to transfer their plans into a sham company in a £20mn con will face sentence next month.

Rikki Nicholls, 56, and Mark Kelly, 51, persuaded 285 victims to move their pension plans to their company PCD Wealth and Pensions.

Nicholls and Kelly were convicted of conspiracy to defraud and transferring criminal property after a trial lasting more than five months.

They will be sentenced on June 27.

zagfles

A reminder to check the financial ombudsman site to see if advisers have any judgements against them which could be a warning sign (obviously not foolproof but takes 30 secs to check): https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions

dunstonh

jmsjt said:

Two financial advisers who convinced hundreds of vulnerable pension holders to transfer their plans into a sham company in a £20mn con will face sentence next month.

Rikki Nicholls, 56, and Mark Kelly, 51, persuaded 285 victims to move their pension plans to their company PCD Wealth and Pensions.

Nicholls and Kelly were convicted of conspiracy to defraud and transferring criminal property after a trial lasting more than five months.

They will be sentenced on June 27.

According to the FCA register, neither of them were financial advisers and the company was not an authorised firm.

So, it appears that it was another unregulated scam.

Home_Counties

We've had to wait a long time, but some good news at last.

Does anyone know if the other two defendants (the partners of Nicholls and Kelly) were also found guilty? Perhaps those verdicts haven't been delivered yet.

I will check back here after June 27 when the sentences are announced.

jmsjt

Sentencing has been postponed until 15 July due to Mark Kelly testing positive for Covid-19.

Home_Counties

Mark Kelly and Rikki Nicholls have each been sentenced to six years imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud and money laundering at Southwark Crown Court.

Further details here:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/duo-jailed-ps20m-pension-fraud

https://news.met.police.uk/news/two-men-jailed-after-met-detectives-uncovered-22-pounds-million-pension-fraud-451204

jmsjt

FYI

I have contacted the Attorney General's office requesting a review under the Unduly Lenient Sentencing (ULS) scheme.

Probably a waste of time but who knows?

Geoffgt

Well done Sir, 6 years is too lenient, hardly a deterrent to prevent similar types doing the same again to other trusting people.
Anyone hear what happened to Kelly and Nicholls' partners in crime?

Home_Counties

Geoffgt said:

Anyone hear what happened to Kelly and Nicholls' partners in crime?

As far as I can tell, that information has not been made public.

neutronwrangler

Home_Counties said:

Geoffgt said:

Anyone hear what happened to Kelly and Nicholls' partners in crime?

As far as I can tell, that information has not been made public.

From Op Quaveo:

10/12/2022-  To anybody who has not used this email address out of office before, welcome. This is where you will find all of the OP Quaveo updates.
I wanted to add this today as there has not been an update for a while and I want to ensure that everybody can see where we have got to.
As previously stated, the re-trial for Sharon Nicholls is still listed to start on 20/03/2022 and is expected to last 7 days.
Rikki Nicholls, Mark Kelly and Angela Kelly have all been convicted and the case for them is continuing to compensation/ confiscation.
Rikki Nicholls confiscation has been adjourned pending the outcome of the Sharon Nicholls trial.
The confiscation for Mark and Angela Kelly is under way.
Confiscation process can be lengthy and there may be a number a small hearing prior to any orders being made. It can take up to two years.
I am very aware that many of you have lost considerable sums of money as a result of this fraud.  Please do not expect to get anywhere near the amount of money back that you lost.  The majority of the invested funds were invested in to SIPPs that were so high risk that they have since gone bust and there will be no getting the money back from them .
When a person is convicted of a crime of financial gain, we will look to seek out all of their assets. This could include their houses, cars, jewellery, overseas assets and anything that could be realised.  This all has to be agreed by the court. Victim compensation will be calculated pro-rata from the assets which are realised.
I am in the process of trying to reach out to all the persons known to have been affected by this crime and have again written to people who have not responded to previous communication.  Any victim who is on the original list who now does not make contact with me to confirm that they did invest with PCD, will be removed from the list of victims  and therefore will not receive any compensation.

 To get the latest just email:

EconomicCrimeMailbox-.OpQuaveo@met.police.uk