Yorkshire man jailed over £20.5m investment scam to fund 'lavish lifestyle'

Joseph Lewis, of Thearne Lane, in Thearne, near Beverley, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison at Southwark Crown Court on October 16 after previously pleading guilty to 19 counts of fraud by false representation last month.

The 65-year-old had been running his fraudulent investment scheme for a decade, convincing clients from around the world to invest large amounts of money into foreign exchange trading, and then keeping the money for himself.

Many of his victims were investing their money to save towards retirement or to make a better life for their young family, police said.

In December 2014, he emailed his clients and told them he had not been trading with their investments since 2009, and then called police and told them what he had done. He was arrested by City of London Police officers in April 2015.

Lewis sent his clients fabricated reports showing their investments doing exceptionally well, which encouraged them to invest more money or recommend friends and family. Some of his clients had requested to withdraw their money as early as 2012, but were met with delays and ultimately a failure to return the funds. He only returned the money to investors who threatened legal action.

Eventually, Lewis only admitted to investors their funds were gone when he had used all of the money he had fraudulently obtained and was no longer receiving payments from current, or new, clients.

Detective Sergeant Lee Nelson, from the City of London Police’s economic crime department, said: “Lewis is an extremely manipulative and dishonest man. He knew his victims were investing money to save towards retirement or to make a better life for their young family, and instead he used their money to fund his own extravagant lifestyle. He also used their funds to put on lavish events and meetings across the world.

“I can’t even begin to describe the devastating impact this has had on people’s lives, many of whom will never be able to recover financially and psychologically. Lewis has destroyed marriages, family bonds and friendships, as these fraudulent investments often came from peer-to-peer recommendations.

“It has taken six years to get to this point, after a complex and challenging investigation, and I hope that the sentence passed down to Lewis will leave him with nothing but time in jail to reflect on his deceitful and greedy actions.”

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James Mitchinson