Three fraudsters who ran a £70million pension Ponzi scheme disguised as an ethical tree-planting investment have been jailed after admitting fraudulent trading. Matthew Pickard, Stephen Greenaway and Paul Laver conned more than 3,000 people over seven years through their Bournemouth-based firm, Ethical Forestry Limited, persuading pensioners to transfer their savings into a tree-planting scheme in Costa Rica while pocketing around £14million for themselves. The case matters because it highlights how convincing "green" investment fraud can devastate victims' finances and wellbeing, with the sentencing judge describing the harm as leaving futures blighted and marriages broken.

At Southwark Crown Court, the trio were sentenced to a combined 15 years and nine months, with Pickard receiving six years, Greenaway five years and three months, and Laver four and a half years. The Serious Fraud Office found the men used false company names to gain victims' trust and spent investors' money on luxury homes, five-star holidays, a yacht and sports cars including Ferraris and Maseratis, which were hidden from clients visiting the office. While trees were genuinely planted in Costa Rica, no funds were set aside to maintain or harvest them, meaning the promised returns could never materialise; a proceeds of crime hearing is due to follow.