UK: "fake" stockbroker jailed

Perhaps the biggest concern over the case of William Anthony 'Robin' Radclyffe is not that he committed at least 49 offences whilst acting as an undregistered . unauthorised broker from 1997 to 2004 but that his activities were not stopped sooner.

During that time, the FSA says, "Radclyffe made false and misleading statements to his clients about both the management and profit made by an illegal collective investment scheme that he was operating. Mr Radclyffe also stole an investment portfolio valued at almost GBP100,000 and dishonestly failed to return GBP20,000 he owed to his former partner, who also invested in his scheme. Mr Radclyffe defrauded a number of investors, the majority of whom were friends, and losses attributed to Mr Radclyffe total more than GBP350,000"

In a nod to the 1995 book "How not to be a money launderer" by Nigel Morris-Cotterill, now head of The Anti Money Laundering Network, parent of World Money Laundering Report, Radclyffe used part of the stolen money to pay for school fees, a risk Morris-Cotterill had expressly drawn attention to in that book. He also used it to pay day to day living expenses but lost a lot of it in failed investment plays he undertook on his own account.

Radclyffe has little prospect of repaying the amounts involved and because Radclyffe was not authorised, his clients cannot claim against the Financial Services Compensation Fund Scheme.

Radclyffe was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment after admitting 15 offences and asking for another 34 to be taken into account. He was also banned from being a company director for five years.