Rodney Whiston-Dew, who lured wealthy individuals to invest in fake ‘green’ projects, has been sentenced to an additional term of imprisonment for non-payment of his £2.7m Confiscation Order the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced.
On 29 November at Westminster Magistrates’ Court the fraudster, now aged 71, was ordered to serve an additional eight years and nine months imprisonment.
Whiston-Dew was originally convicted and sentenced in 2017 alongside four others, of cheating the public revenue.
In 2019 the CPS had successfully applied to the court for the man to pay back more than £3m of his ill-gotten gains which was reduced to £2.7m in October 2023 with the total amount currently sitting at £3.4m with interest.
The group of five fraudsters told investors their money would be spent on research and development into carbon credits attracting more than £65m in investment in the ‘green’ scheme.
However, only £16m was spent on planting trees and instead the group stole £20m and laundered it via bank accounts and secret trusts.
Spending the stolen money on luxury properties in London, Australia and Dubai as well as hidden offshore investment.
They also failed to pay around £6.5m in tax according to the CPS.
To read more on this topic, visit: Over 3 million Brits fell victim to a financial scam in last year
Adrian Foster, chief crown prosecutor of the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: “Rodney Whiston- Dew failed to pay back the £2.7 million that he owed, so the CPS have returned him to court and now he has had an additional default sentence of eight years and nine months imprisonment on top of his original sentence.
“We worked with HMRC to make sure he did not benefit from the proceeds of his crime, but he has only paid back a paltry amount of his available assets.
“Even when fraudsters are convicted and sentenced the CPS will continue to robustly pursue them for the money they owe, or they risk remaining in prison for many more years if they fail to pay their order in full.”
Whiston-Dew’s fellow fraudsters, Evdoros Demetriou and Michael Richards, were returned to prison in 2021 to serve an additional nine and six years in prison for failing to pay back £4.6m and £9.9m respectively.
In total, all five offenders were told to repay £20.6 million.
