Fraudsters made £14m on tree-planting investment scam

Three men made £14m after persuading clients to invest their pensions in a tree-planting scam.

Matthew Pickard, 55, Stephen Greenaway, 46, and Paul Laver, 47, spent their money on luxury cars, holidays, watches and jewellery.

Opening a two-day sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court for fraud, prosecutors said Pickard was the "driving force" behind Bournemouth-based Ethical Forestry Ltd.

The company collapsed in 2015 after taking £70m from investors, the Serious Fraud Office previously said.

The business operated from a call centre that employed hundreds of sales staff.

They cold-called potential clients and asked them to invest their company pensions in tree plantations in Costa Rica.

The three men planted some trees, but did not maintain the plantation or fund infrastructure to help with harvesting.

A Ponzi-style payment to early investors from a "thinning-out harvest" was in fact cash from new investors, prosecutors said.

Kevin Dent KC said the three directors, who previously pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading, took £14m from the firm through a tax avoidance scheme.

Greenaway, from Parkstone in Poole, bought 26 performance cars valued at up to £1.3m, the prosecutor told the court.

He said Pickard, from Lytchett Matravers, spent £47,000 on a seven-night stay in a Swiss chalet in 2013.

The court heard Laver, from West Parley, told his wife in a text: "Dividends are always going to be high. We come first."

Dent said the three performed a "ballet" with their luxury cars to hide them from visiting clients in Bournemouth.

The vehicles, including Maseratis and McLarens, were moved to a public car park across the road or taken home.

By 2013, the directors were aware of a "gathering storm about their kind of unregulated investments," Dent said.

However, they increased their takings from the business, the barrister said.

Pickard's barrister described him as "a decent man", adding: "Greedy and stupid he may have been, but he was not wicked."

The sentencing hearing continues.