Fraudster Michael Nascimento, who helped scam £2.8m from elderly and vulnerable people, has been sentenced to an additional almost four years in prison for failing to pay a confiscation order against him.

In 2018, he was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment for his part in a £2.8 million investment fraud.

He and five associates cheated elderly and vulnerable people out of their life savings through a series of boiler room companies.

Members of the public were cold-called and subjected to high-pressure sales tactics to persuade them to buy shares in a company that claimed to own land on the island of Madeira.

Investors were promised guaranteed returns of between 125% and 228% however the money was used to sustain the fraud and to fund the lifestyle of Mr Nascimento, one of the ring-leaders of the scam.

Mark Steward, FCA director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Convicted fraudsters should not be able to retain the proceeds of their wrongdoing and we will continue to ensure orders are not evaded.'

A Confiscation Order was made on 21 June 2021 at a hearing before His Honour Judge Hehir sitting at Southwark Crown Court. Mr Nascimento was ordered to pay the sum of £976,511.81 before the 21 December 2021 to satisfy the Confiscation Order.

He has so far paid almost half of that with the outstanding balance accruing interest at the daily rate of £118.60.

Even after serving the sentence in default of payment, Mr Nascimento will continue to be liable for the outstanding debt, the FCA said. All money recovered from Mr Nascimento will be used to compensate the victims of his crimes.

Mr Nascimento has been sentenced to an additional 1,417 days’ imprisonment at a hearing at the City of London Magistrates’ Court.

In May last year the FCA banned indefinitely five individuals involved in the illegal investment scheme including Mr Nascimento.

The five who were banned were: Michael Nascimento (individual ref no. 3111345), Charanjit Sandhu (6094530), Stuart Rea (5326274), Jeannine Lewis (6094537) and Hugh Edwards (7279949).

At the time they were sentenced in 2018 the case - known as Operation Tidworth - was described as the FCA’s second biggest ever fraud investigation. The five were sentenced to a total of 17.5 years in prison in 2018. 

Over 170 members of the public invested over £2.8m in the shares. Many were elderly or vulnerable and lost “life-changing sums”, in some cases all their life savings.  

At the time of the court case, Judge Hehir called the crimes “scams from start to finish” and said some victims had lost everything they had. He added that it was “particularly repellent” that elderly people had been specifically targeted and their stories were at times “positively heart-breaking.”

Investors bought shares in Pearl Island International LLC, Paragon Private Wealth LLC, Berkeley Brookes LLC, and/or Atlantic Equity LLC. The shares in the illegal scheme were sold through Morgan Forbes (UK) Ltd, Acropolis SGPS, Amber Crest Investments, Paragon Private Wealth, Ocean Peak International, First Capital Wealth Limited, Bishops of Mayfair Ltd, Walberg Dillion Reid Ltd, and Sterling Capital Corporation Ltd.

Between July 2010 and April 2014, members of the public were cold-called and subjected to high pressure sales tactics to persuade them to buy shares in a company that owned land on the island of Madeira.