Midland pensioner Bill Shackleford, who fell victim to disgraced financier Gary Hexley, has won £30,000 compensation following an “exhausting” two-year battle.
But he is among only a handful of the 230 investors to win their cases after being stripped of savings following the collapse of Hexley’s Sutton Coldfield property firm, Greenfield International.
And today the pensioner, from Hopwas, near Tamworth, thanked the Birmingham Mail for highlighting his legal battle, which led to the scandal being raised in the House of Commons by local MP Christopher Pincher.
Mr Shackleford accused the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which first rejected his case back in October 2010, of ‘incompetence and inconsistency.”
“We are delighted to have won but we are completely exhausted,’’ he said.
‘‘My wife and I had almost given up the battle after 21 months of stress.
“We spent days and days working on this over nearly two years and we should never have had to. We were wrongly rejected in the first place.
“I would like to thank the Mail for publicising my case and Tamworth MP Christopher Pincher for raising my plight in the House of Commons.”
More than 230 creditors, many of them elderly, were left out of pocket to the tune of up to £80,000 when property investment firm Greenfield International collapsed.
Hexley had been made bankrupt with liabilities of nearly £1 million and was banned as a financial adviser. He was arrested in November last year and investigations by the Financial Services Authority continue.
Mr Shackleford today called for his case to open the floodgates for other successful claims.
“All the investors caught up in this are ordinary lay people with no experience of how to fight for compensation. My claim was successful. I am sure that many others should now succeed too.
“The FSCS says all claims are treated on an individual basis but they seem at best inconsistent, at worst incompetent.”
