Another Ponzi scheme has come to its natural end in the UK with the sentencing of Stephen Greig, 73, who worked for investment house Charles Stanley and used its letterheads fraudulently to make their investments appear sound. The fraudster did not, however, use the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

Greig, of Shrivenham in Swindon, used his friends' money, which he was purportedly investing for their old age, to pay dividends to other investors and to pay himself £60,000 over a six-year period. By 2006 he was, the court heard, taking money but not investing it as he promised but using it to pay off previous investors because he could not fulfil his investment targets. He had ten victims in all, including Maidstone Rotary Club, who collectively lost £1.2 million. Charles Stanley magnanimously stepped in and compensated them when his fraud was first uncovered. The largest 'investment' seems to have been £500,000 but, in fact, Greig made up names for imaginary investment funds. The returns he offered were in the order of 7½%. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

The only surety that the investors had was Greig's word as a gentleman. In return, he wrote them fraudulent letters on Charles Stanley headed notepaper to convince them that their investments were prospering. In fact, his investment strategy suffered fatally in the stock market mayhem of 2008 and spiralled out of control until he was unmasked as a fraud who was "robbing Peter to pay Paul" in 2012. The trial judge said that during this period he was "out of his depth."