A Suffolk man has been jailed for his role in a £11.5 million scam targeting elderly people. Steven Long, 59, ran several businesses under the banner of Ipswich-based Universal Wealth Preservation (UWP), which he used to invest his customers' savings in unsustainable high-risk schemes without their knowledge. This resulted in losses of £11,577,762 for 115 victims across several counties, including Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Kent.
The court heard that Long and his business associate, Raymond Simpson, lured homeowners near retirement age into attending marketing seminars, which promised to manage and protect trust funds for inheritance planning. However, the pair instead ploughed their clients' money into increasingly reckless investments. Long's business group UWP collapsed in 2018, revealing the extent of the offending.
In sentencing Long, Judge Gregory Perrins stated that 'no sentence I impose today will feel long enough to those who have suffered so much.' Long's business associate, Raymond Simpson, was tried and convicted in his absence and has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Simpson was also accused of defrauding £785,380 through investments and £615,000 by buying land in Spain.