A SUCCESSFUL COMMODITY BROKER HAS BEEN REDUCED TO

A SUCCESSFUL COMMODITY BROKER HAS BEEN REDUCED TO FRYING FISH

FOR A LIVING AFTER ‘THE OBSERVER’ EXPOSED HIS ‘RECKLESSNESS’ TOWARDS

POTENTIAL INVESTORS.

THE FRAUD SQUAD WERE CALLED IN AFTER THE NEWSPAPER MADE

ALLEGATIONS IN RELATION TO ‘THE VEGAS TRUST’ INVESTMENT SCHEME, SAID

MISS ANN CURNOW, QC, PROSECUTING, AT THE OLD BAILEY ON WEDNESDAY.

DETECTIVES FOUND AN ‘ILLEGAL’ INVESTMENT BROCHURE HADEN SENT

TO PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS CONTAINING ‘COMPLETELY BOGUS’ DETAILS.

COMMODITY BROKER RAYMOND REDWAY, 42, OF GILFACH COTTAGE,

EFAULWEN, CLYN DER WEN, DYFED, FORMERLY OF SANKEY HOUSE,

BROOK, NEAR ASHFORD, KENT, ADMITTED UNLAWFULLY MAKING FALSE

STATEMENTS IN THE BROCHURE TO MISLEAD AND INDUCE INDIVIDUALS TO

INVEST IN THE TRUST.

REDWAY AND 39 YEAR OLD SOLICITOR PATRICK COLLIN, OF TENNYSON

STREET, CLAPHAM, SOUTH LONDON, ALSO ADMITTED SENDING THE INVESTMENT

BROCHURE TO PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS CONTRAVENING THE 1958 PREVENTIONS OF

FRAUD INVESTMENT ACT.

AFTER THE TRUST STARTED IN 1983 THE TRUST’S BROKERS, INCLUDING

REDWAY AND COLLIN, DECIDED THAT PUBLICITY WAS NEEDED AND THE IDEA OF

A ‘MAILSHOT’ WAS STARTED, THE COURT HEARD.

‘BUT MUCH OF WHAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE BROCHURE WAS HUFF, BLURB AND

OBVIOUSLY MISLEADING’ SAID MISS CURNOW.

‘REDWAY WROTE DOWN A SERIES OF QUALIFICATIONS WHICH HE LATER
ADMITTED WERE EITHER MISLEADING OR COMPLETELY FALSE,’ SHE ADDED.

BUT IN A STATEMENT TO POLICE REDWAY SAID: ‘SOME OF THE

QUALIFICATIONS ARE ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

WHEN I SAW THAT I WENT UP IN THE

AIR.

IT WAS A COMPLETE COCK-UP.

‘

HE SAID HE TOLD THE AGENCY: ‘YOU CAN’T DAMN WELL SAY THAT

BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE SOME OF THESE QUALIFICATIONS’

.

BUT HE WAS TOLD IT WAS TOO LATE TO CHANGE IT.

MISS CURNOW WENT ON TO LIST A NUMBER OF FALSE STATEMENTS
CONCERNING THE INSIDE STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE TRUST.

‘IN ONE PARAGRAPH THE COMPANY CLAIMS THAT IN SIX MONTHS THERE HAD

BEEN A 26 PER CENT INCREASE.

THAT IS A LIE.

IN FACT THERE HAD BEEN A

CONSIDERABLE LOSS.

‘
SHE SAID THE BROCHURE HAD BEEN SENT TO PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS WHEN

REDWAY AND COLLIN KNEW THAT SUCH DOCUMENTS SHOULD ONLY BE SENT TO

INVESTMENT CONSULTANTS.

MR MICHAEL WEST, DEFENDING REDWAY, SAID: ‘THIS ONCE SUCCESSFUL

COMMODITY BROKER HAS NOW BEEN REDUCED TO BEING A FISH-FRYER FROM A

MOBILE VAN SIMPLY BECAUSE OF HIS RECKLESSNESS IN HANDLING THIS

AFFAIR.

‘
MR ELIOT HILL, DEFENDING COLLIN, TOLD THE JUDGE: ‘NO FRAUD HAS

BEEN PROVED OR ADMITTED IN REPECT OF MR COLLIN.

EVERY SINGLE INVESTOR

HAS BEEN PAID BACK AND NO MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC HAS LOST A PENNY.

‘BY MID-OCTOBER, 1983, COLLIN AND REDWAY CAME UP WITH THE IDEA
OF SENDING A LETTER TO POTENTIAL INVESTORS ADDING A SEALED ENVELOPE
WITH THE BROCHURE INSIDE.

THEY THEN STATED IN THE LETTER THAT THE
ENVELOPE WAS ONLY TO BE OPENED BY AN INVESTMENT ADVISER.

‘THE PROSECUTION SAY THAT, OF COURSE, THE INVESTOR WOULD OPEN THE

LETTER, THUS BREAKING THE LAW.

BUT THIS WAS NOT THEIR INTENTION,’

SAID MR HILL.

SENTENCING REDWAY JUDGE RANKING SAID: ‘YOUR OFFENCE WAS NOT FRAUD

BUT YOU HAVE PLEADED GUILTY TO RECKLESSNESS OF A SERIOUS KIND.

YOU
MADE NOTHING OUT OF THIS – IN FACT YOU ARE PARTLY RUINED.

‘
TO COLLIN HE SAID: ‘I’M SATISFIED THAT THIS WAS A SERIOUS
ERROR OF JUDGMENT ON YOUR PART BUT NO MORE THAN THAT.

THERE WAS NO
ELEMENT OF CRIMINALITY.

‘
REDWAY WAS GIVEN A 15 MONTH SUSPENDED JAIL SENTENCE AND FINED

#500.

COLLIN WAS ALSO FINED #500.

ENDS