A rogue foreign exchange trader, who swindled £14m out of 335 unsuspecting investors, after concealing his shameful criminal past, was jailed for eight years today.
Terence Freeman, 63,(pictured) of King’s Place, King’s Road, Horsham, West Sussex, formerly of Whitehall Lane, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, is the former boss of City-based GFX Capital Markets Ltd.
To ringing applause from approximately twenty-five investors the conman was jailed by Southwark Crown Court Judge Christopher Hardy who told Freeman: “This matter is one of the most serious cases of it’s kind I have had to deal with in nearly twenty years in this court.
“It is so serious because of the sheer amount of money involved, the number of victims, over three hundred, and the type of victims you were dealing with.
“Not big institutions, but ordinary hard-working families who entrusted you to invest their savings, pensions and inheritances and all is likely to be lost. I have read a number of heartrending impact statements.
“You have an appalling criminal record for dishonesty going back to 1979 and you were bankrupt and disqualified from being a company director.
“Had your investors known this they would have run a mile instead of investing their life-savings with you.”
Throughout 2006 and 2007 Freeman – who had a luxury box at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club – also blew £14,000 a month rent on exclusive Square Mile offices in a bid to look every bit the successful businessman.
“When he posted a large profit he would proudly take phone calls from elated clients,” prosecutor Mr. Stephen Hellman told the court.
“However, after the stock market crash and the Lehman Brothers collapse on September and October 2008 Freeman’s trading fortunes got much worse.”
He lied to customers, falsely inflating profits, when in fact their investments were nose-diving and were not protected by risk precautions Freeman had boasted about.
Freeman tried to secure further investment to bail out his company during an extravagant presentation at five-star Hanbury Manor Country Hotel, Ware, Hertfordshire.
“He presented slides that claimed GFX had been making profits,” explained Mr. Hellman. “Freeman made quite a lot of money.
“He made a number of ad hoc withdrawals from the GFX account. There was a lack of transparency about how he was remunerating himself and he was doing rather well out of it.”
Incredibly, after being charged Freeman started trading again from offices at Gatwick Airport under GFX Capital International Ltd. and was arrested during a police raid, which shut him down on October 7, last year.
The court was told one investor, Hornchurch roofing contractor Peter Beeson, 52, lost his family’s assets of £600,000 after being tricked by bogus statements showing his money had doubled.
“The GFX statement bore out the dream,” he said in a statement. “The dream became my worst nightmare.
“I will have to carry on working as long as I can with no pension or savings,” added dad-of-two Mr. Beeson. “I feel I have let my family down……..I am angry with myself.”
Freeman was not red-flagged by the Financial Services Authority and many customers, including one of the heaviest casualties, went ahead and invested after checking their website.
He pleaded guilty to being knowingly a party to the carrying on of a business, namely GFX Ltd., for a fraudulent purpose, namely the inducement of persons to invest in a ‘Safe’ exchange scheme by making false representations and statements as to the protection and profits of investments.
Freeman, who changed his name from Terry Sparks, was a bankrupt, banned from running a company for fifteen years and had been sent to prison by four different Crown Courts for financial crime between 1979 and 1997.
He also pleaded guilty to engaging in business while bankrupt, acting as a director when bankrupt and acting in contravention of a disqualification order.
Much of the rest was moved straight into a foreign account and blown on holiday homes in Cyprus and France, a top of the range land rover and lavish gifts for his new younger Eastern European bride, including a £120,000 diamond ring.
Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings were adjourned until August 1.
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