A financial scandal – which has left more than 230 creditors out of pocket to the tune of up to £80,000 – is to be raised in Parliament.
Tamworth MP Christopher Pincher is to put down a Parliamentary written question highlighting the plight of elderly and retired investors facing losses of many thousands of pounds.
Mr Pincher stepped in to throw his weight behind the campaign for compensation for creditors following the £2 million-plus collapse of Gary Hexley’s Sutton Coldfield-based Greenfield International company.
Dozens of investors, including Mr Pincher’s constituent Bill Shackleford, who have yet to receive a penny, are fighting for compensation through the Government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Mr Pincher said: “I fully support Bill and the other people looking for financial compensation. These are not rich people – they are elderly folk who have scrimped and saved for years.
“They put their money into a financial investment with a man they trusted and they have more or less lost everything.
“All of these groups (Hexley companies) were backed by the Financial Services Authority.
“I have written to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to say these groups were using FSA-headed paper and were approved and that they should make good to people by compensation.
“It seems to me that these people have got a case. I will put down a written question which then goes to the appropriate Minister asking what steps are put in place to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen and ensuring that people who invest in IFAs are not ripped off. The FSCS needs to respond positively and we need to make sure that the system of consumer protection is transparent.”
Hexley, who pulled out of a promised meeting with creditors ten minutes after it had started blaming “excessive stress,” was made bankrupt with liabilities of nearly £1 million and banned and censured by the Financial Services Authority. He failed to respond to calls from the Mail.
