Liverpool ‘property tycoon’ Ken Metcalf jailed for £4.4m investments scam

A FRAUDSTER who lived a millionaire lifestyle by ripping off dozens of property investors has been jailed.

For more than two years, Ken Metcalf, 53, ran a string of companies under the Tailormade banner, which he claimed would give a 50% return on profits by building and selling various construction projects.

But a court heard it was all a lie designed to support an “exuberant lifestyle” and shore up failing businesses.

The Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe, QC, told Liverpool Crown Court that Metcalf, of Cornerhouse Country Cottages, Wrexham, impressed investors and staff alike by showing off expensive cars, watches, a yacht on Lake Annecy and a £1m mansion in Poulton, Cheshire.

He said: “You started to give advice on investment opportunities in 2005. You became confident in your own abilities.

“Through your lifestyle and personal guarantee, you gave the appearance of great wealth.

“When you started to lose significant sums, you gave increasingly unrealistic promises, hoping you would strike it lucky.

“When things started to go wrong, you started to rob Peter to pay Paul, instead of stopping trading.”

Judge Globe said of the £4.4m raised for building projects in the Bahamas, Cyprus, Turkey, southern France, Cumbria, Scotland and several in Liverpool, £3.3m was never returned to investors and £500,000 was used personally by Metcalf and his wife, including £240,000 on a mortgage deposit.

Metcalf’s 56 investors were mostly family people hoping for a return on their life savings, not knowing half of his “opportunities” did not even exist.

Judge Globe read a series of victim statements telling of financial ruin and families split apart in the wake of Metcalf’s scams.

He said: “They demonstrate all too clearly that offences such as fraudulent trading are not victimless crimes.

“Far from it, they have the potential to destroy lives.”

Metcalf, who ran his businesses from an address in Union Street, Liverpool city centre, pleaded guilty to two charges of fraudulent trading at an earlier hearing and yesterday was jailed for four years and eight months for his deceptions.

Metcalf, who the court heard was now suicidal, stood impassively as the sentence was passed.

His wife, Nicola Metcalf-Chakravaty, 41, of Maddocks Close, Farndon, near Chester, pleaded guilty to fraud after lying to obtain their £750,000 mortgage.

Judge Globe accepted she was as misled by her husband’s lies as his investors, but said she had still acted dishonestly.

He said she had earned a jail sentence but acknowledged her marriage had “ended in disaster” and instead ordered her to undertake 250 hours’ unpaid work in the community.

She has since left Metcalf, the father of her two children.

Both denied charges of money laundering and were found not guilty after no evidence was offered.

Outside court, DC Paul Forshaw, from Merseyside Police’s Economic Crime Team, said: “We are pleased that a two-year investigation into the lies, deceit and ultimately the fraud committed by Ken Metcalf against more than 50 investors and employees has resulted in this custodial sentence, and the conviction also of his wife, Nicola Metcalf-Chakravarty.

“Metcalf’s reckless actions have changed people’s lives forever and have resulted in the loss of more than £3.3m of other people’s hard-earned money.

“Investors have had their financial security stolen and their entire futures jeopardised as a result of Metcalf’s fraudulent activities.

“We hope in knowing Metcalf will today start a custodial sentence, his victims will find some solace and closure and can get on with rebuilding their finances and their lives.

“My thanks go to all the victims and witnesses who helped the police and Crown Prosecution Service in putting him before the courts so that justice could be done.”