Jail for financial advisor who defrauded clients

A financial advisor who continued to invest clients’ money despite losing his job has been jailed.

Andrew Powell, 41, of Stamford Road, Ryhall defrauded elderly victims out of more than £700,000 over a 13 year period.

Yesterday (December 13) he was jailed for 45 months at Peterborough Crown Court after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation and one count of obtaining property by deception.

On June 20 Powell handed himself into police at Thorpe Wood Police Station.

He told the police that he had lost his job as a financial advisor in 2003 after it was revealed he had falsified a customer’s signature.

He couldn’t bring himself to tell his family and instead revisited a former client, from St Ives, who is now in her late 80s, and convinced her and her late husband to invest in his former company.

However, instead of investing the money, Powell stole additional cheques from their cheque book to pay himself £529,635 between 2003 and 2016.

When he realised the victim had no money left to steal, Powell went on to defraud another elderly woman, from Ryhall, in her late 70s.

Between 2013 and 2015 he stole £185,190 by claiming he was investing the money.

Detective Constable Graham Holmes said: “Powell gained and subsequently abused the trust of vulnerable people for his own ends. The sheer greed and deception of Powell was astounding.

“We hope the custodial sentence and an agreement under the Proceeds of Crime Act that money will be paid back will give his victims some satisfaction.”