A financial adviser who traded as ‘Currency Trader Ltd’ has been slapped with an additional two years on his decade-long sentence issued last year.
The revised sentence was handed down to Phillip Boakes today after he was ordered to pay £165,731 in November 2015 in a confiscation order, but he simply did not pay the fine.
After serving his sentence, Boakes will still be liable for the outstanding debt if it is not settled in the meantime. It will also accrue interest.
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, suggested that Boakes was unable to pay the fine because he had squandered his ill-gotten gains on a “lavish lifestyle”.
He said: “Unfortunately, as is often the case with fraudulent unauthorised investment schemes, Boakes spent much of the monies on a lavish lifestyle and unsuccessful financial trading.
“Wrongdoers should not be able to retain the benefits of their wrongdoing.”
Boakes was initially sentenced to a decade in jail in March last year after deceiving savers out of £3.5 million.
The financial adviser pleaded guilty of two counts of fraudulent trading and three counts of using forged documents at his company Currency Trader Ltd.
Boakes was not authorised to accept deposits, but did it anyway and the pledge of guaranteed returns was fiction, the FCA said.