Fraudsters who lived luxury lifestyles with fancy holidays and top-of-the-range sports cars after conning pensioners out of £70m in tree-planting Ponzi scheme are jailed

Three fraudsters who lived 'like they won the lottery' after conning pensioners out of £70million have been jailed.Matthew Pickard, 58, Stephen Greenaway, 48 and Paul Laver, 47, spent seven years duping more than 3,000 people out of their savings as part of a Ponzi scheme.The trio claimed they were investing savers' pensions in an ethical tree-planting project in Costa Rica and promised 'huge returns' to clients.But they were secretly squirrelling away and then spending around £14million to fund their indulgent standards of living.The trio spent millions on luxury houses, including in the Sandbanks area of Bournemouth, near where they lived.They went on five-star holidays across Asia, Central America and Europe, bought a yacht, and amassed a collection of high-end sports cars, including Maseratis, Ferraris and Porsches, which were hidden away from prospective customers.Pickard, Greenaway and Laver were handed jail terms totalling 15 years and nine months when they were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after admitting fraudulent trading.His Honour Judge Alexander Milne KC said: 'Instead of making proper provision, you each began taking large sums out of the company, treating investors' money as personal funds rather than working capital. Matthew Pickard, 58, was part of the £70m scheme which conned people out of their pensions Paul Laver, 47, was one of three defendants who admitted fraud Stephen Greenaway, 48, and his two other defendants lived luxury lifestyles at the expense of their victims'The funds removed were spent as each of you had won the lottery. 'It is particularly striking how Ferraris and Maseratis had to be hidden from sight when investors were expected to visit the office.'It was a giveaway that the only people benefitting from the scheme were those running it.'The judge said the impact on the victims was 'hard to overestimate'.He said: 'Futures have been blighted, marriages broken, and the health and security of thousands of people jeopardised.'Members of the public shook their heads as mitigation for the trio was presented in court, and exchanged whispered tales of having to return to work after losing their savings.The defendants showed no emotion as the judge handed Pickard an immediate jail term of six years, Greenaway was given five years and three months in prison, and Laver was handed a four-and-a-half-year sentence. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) led the investigation into the trio's dodgy Ethical Forestry Limited firm. He uncovered how the former directors ran a Bournemouth-based call centre, persuading members of the public - unsolicited - to withdraw and invest funds from their pension schemes in a tree-planting operation in Costa Rica.Investigators found that employees of Ethical Forestry Limited used false company names without disclosing their true employer, to gain the trust of victims before encouraging them to transfer their savings to the scheme.Whilst trees were planted in Costa Rica using the funds, nothing was set aside to maintain or harvest the saplings, meaning investors' money could never generate the returns they had been promised, the SFO said. The trio amassed a series of top-of-the-range sports cars, including a Maserati Nero Granturismo (file image) Their ill-gotten gains were also spent on luxuries such as a Boston Whaler boat (file image)Graham McNulty, SFO director, said: 'These former directors preyed on people's good intentions to support a "green" investment, stealing £70million from hard-earned life savings and pensions.'Our thorough investigation exposed this fraudulent scheme, and the strength of our evidence led us to secure three guilty pleas, resulting in today's sentence.'This is an important step towards justice.'