The high court handed down disqualifications of 15 years against Lee John Thompson and Andrew Michael Spiteri while earlier in the year Stephen Michael Leary agreed to a ban of 14 years.
This mean they cannot promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company until 2030.
Carbon credits scam
The trio, who were directors of Worldwide Commodity Partners Limited (Worldwide), have been found guilty of duping investors into buying worthless investments known as voluntary emission reduction carbon credits (VERs).
VERs claim to help reduce carbon emissions by investing renewable energy technology.
An IS investigation found that Thompson, Spiteri and Leary knew the so-called carbon credit “had no potential to show a return” and as a results investors around the world lost almost £3m. The company was wound up in May 2014.
Thompson was the director of the company, while Spiteri and Leary were not formally appointed directors but exercised day to day control of sales.
Anthony Hannon, official receiver in the Public Interest Unit, who conducted the investigation in to the dodgy investments, said:
“This company made bold, exaggerated claims about the financial advantages of buying carbon credits, but the truth is, the advantage was all in the company’s favour.
“The lengthy disqualifications handed down show this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated by the Insolvency Service nor by the court.”
Increased fraud
The trio are the latest fraudsters in the UK caught running dubious investments in renewable energy scams.
In September, UK company director Ian Hamilton was disqualified by the high court for cheating investors out of at least £13.3m via several schemes which also claimed to invest in carbon credits.
