Partner Article

IFA jailed after stealing £330k from clients

AN ADVISOR who worked for a now defunct Middlesbrough based IFA business has been jailed for three years for stealing more than £330,000 from clients.

Dr Adrian John Bancroft, who worked for UK Expatriates IFA Services, took £336,000 from five customers during a seven-year scam until his arrest last year.

He was jailed for three years at Teesside Crown Court after police brought 18 charges against him after pleading guilty to all charges on 22 July.

Last May, the FSA warned consumers who bought financial products through UKEIFAS their investments may not be as safe as they thought.

It said the company, which traded from offices in both Middlesbrough and its registered address in Wrexham, north Wales, appeared to have closed down, but may have taken some of its customers’ money with it.

Bancroft reportedly answered an advertisement in a local newspaper to become an IFA in 2002 after failing to get a job in palaeontology, despite obtaining a Phd from Durham University.

It said the business initially did well but, by 2004, as his client list shrunk, Bancroft resorted to dishonest practices to “prop up a pretty routine life”.

Jolyon Perks, prosecuting, said: “He is now forced to live an isolated, penny-pinching existence away from his friends while still grieving the loss of his wife.”

Bancroft’s barrister said the adviser would lose all his assets and would “do all he can from now onwards to put things right”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .