{"id":244588,"date":"2026-01-18T10:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/244588\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:33:08","slug":"three-men-plead-guilty-to-tree-planting-pension-fraud-which-made-70million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/244588\/","title":{"rendered":"Three men plead guilty to tree planting pension fraud which made \u00a370million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three men have confessed to running a \u00a370 million tree planting scam that exploited changes allowing people early access to their pensions.<\/p>\n

Matthew Pickard, Stephen Greenaway, and Paul Laver all pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in relation to Ethical Forestry Limited, based in Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

The now-defunct business would cold-call people, offering them the opportunity to review their pensions and advising them to withdraw money from their employer’s schemes and invest it in tree plantations in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n

However, investigators said the trio had no plans to look after or plant any timber.<\/p>\n

Jason Williams, who led the team at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said: “Whether these three individuals started the business as a fraud, or it just developed, we will never know.”<\/p>\n

Pension liberation fraud schemes offer people early access to their money and transfer the pension pot to a scheme set up by fraudsters.<\/p>\n

The SFO said several hundred employees would contact people from Ethical Forestry’s call centre in Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

Those who proceeded with the company would not receive independent advice but entered what investigators described as “a closed loop”.<\/p>\n

\"Ethical<\/p>\n

Ethical Forestry Limited operated from this building in Bournemouth<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GOOGLE MAPS<\/p>\n

The advice provider was hired by Pickard, Greenaway, and Laver and received a commission for each referral they made to Ethical Forestry.<\/p>\n

“In effect, once the member of the public had been convinced, out of the blue, to have a pension review, they were always going to be referred back to Ethical Forestry,” explained Jason Williams.<\/p>\n

Some 3,000 people fell victim to the scam, with the SFO saying in 2012 it was clear the scheme would never pay back investors or return their cash.<\/p>\n

Instead of closing Ethical Forestry, the directors raised more money and created a so-called “Ponzi” scheme, using incoming cash to make small payments to existing investors.<\/p>\n

\"Costa<\/p>\n

Some 3,000 people fell victim to the tree plantation scam<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

WIKIMEDIACOMMONS<\/p>\n

A significant chunk went to the directors, with Pickard, Greenway and Laver all “withdrawing \u00a315million”, according to Mr Williams.<\/p>\n

The investigator said: “Certainly, some have had very lavish lifestyles, with luxury houses in Sandbanks.<\/p>\n

“One defendant had a number of supercars that he went through, but there was very little to show for the money that had been taken by the time we got there.”<\/p>\n

The SFO described their investigation as one of the largest and most complex.<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/p>\n

The trio had no interest in any tree plantation<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Watchdogs have run several advertisements, warning people of the risks involved.<\/p>\n

The Pensions Regulator stated that its threat assessment showed an ongoing decrease in reports of pension liberation fraud.<\/p>\n

One of the victims from the Ethical Forestery scheme said it is “tragic” that she and the other 3,000 find themselves in this situation.<\/p>\n

The victim said: “It’s a shame, so tragic, and I’m so cross. But I’m very glad that they’ve been brought to justice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three men have confessed to running a \u00a370 million tree planting scam that exploited changes allowing people early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[55124,114,737,268,85,46,43,266,267,117811],"class_list":{"0":"post-244588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-across-the-uk","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-south-east"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}