Jailed former IFA has landmark sentence extended

Former financial adviser Philip Boakes was sentenced to a further 730 days’ imprisonment on Tuesday for failing to satisfy the £165,731 ($237,877, €213,703) Confiscation Order against him.

Jailed former IFA has landmark sentence extended

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The additional two years is on top of his current 10-year jail sentence for the “giant Ponzi scheme” he was found guilty of running last year.

The landmark jail term was handed down in March 2015 when Boakes was convicted of defrauding customers of at least £3.5m, using false instruments and accepting deposits without authorisation.

The Confiscation Order was made on 2 November at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court before Judge Loraine-Smith.

Boakes was due to satisfy the order by 2 February 2016; but, as of Tuesday, the full value of the order remains unpaid and daily interest is accruing at £36.32.

Ill-gotten gains

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), welcomed the court’s decision: “Wrongdoers should not be able to retain the benefits of their wrongdoing. The FCA will continue to ensure orders to strip wrongdoers of their ill-gotten gains are enforced and not ignored or evaded.”

Boakes spent much of the monies he defrauded from his clients on “a lavish lifestyle and unsuccessful financial trading”, the UK’s regulator said.

Tainted gifts

He was made bankrupt on 30 January 2013, with no available assets to satisfy the Confiscation Order at the time it was made.

However, the value of “tainted” gifts can, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, be recovered from defendants even when they may not have the funds to repay the value.

The FCA said: “As such, Mr Boakes was ordered to pay a sum equal to the value of the gifts he made to others. All monies recovered from Mr Boakes will be used to compensate the victims of his crimes.”

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