The High Court declared James Kenneth Maynard, Countrywide Land Holdings Limited and Plateau Development & Land Limited operated a collective investment scheme without authorisation and sold plots of land unlawfully to UK consumers.
Regional Land and Countrywide were trading names used by Maynard.
His Honour Judge Pelling QC banned Maynard for life from selling land for business purposes in the UK and ordered him and Countrywide to pay £31.9m to the FSA, while Plateau, now in liquidation, was instructed to pay £918,975.
A bankruptcy order was also made against Maynard, who is now believed to be living in Northern Cyprus, while Plateau director Wasim Minhas has been ordered to pay £75,000 to the regulator.
The FSA said it has not yet identified any assets that would enable more than a small proportion of these payments to be made, adding it was “unclear” how much will actually be returned to investors.
The FSA previously obtained injunctions against Maynard and Countrywide in August 2010 that froze assets and prevented them from selling more land to investors. The FSA subsequently discovered that Plateau had been set up to continue the business and, in December 2010, secured a similar injunction.
Tracy McDermott, acting director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said: “We have to be realistic about the low probability of securing meaningful compensation for victims of these scams, but this is still an important victory.
“Proving that a land bank is operating a collective investment scheme – and should therefore be FSA authorised – is very complicated, so every success puts us in a stronger position to tackle other schemes.
“This decision sends a message to other land banks that we will not sit by and let them con investors out of their money. Indeed we have also started court actions against others that we believe have been involved in Maynard’s scheme.”
As their business activities were unauthorised, victims of the scam are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
