Rookie FOREX Trader Swindled Trusting Investors In £200,000 Fraud

A newly-divorced single-mum, who set-up an illegal DIY foreign exchange investment scheme, is starting a forty-month prison sentence after defrauding friends and fellow wannabe traders out of £200,000.

Sandra Giraud, 49, thought trading in foreign currency was the answer to her money troubles, but within months she was sending bogus statements to trusting investors, one a woman she knew with Multiple Sclerosis.

One victim suffered a "nervous breakdown" after losing his £88,850 life savings, another lost the entire £45,000 they set aside for their son's private education and another was forced to abandon their dream Barbados retirement after losing £62,000.

Giraud, of Empire Road, Perivale, Greenford pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and one count of carrying on a regulated activity while not authorised between January 1, 2009 and November 1, 2012.

After her divorce she signed-up to 'Traders University' - a course run by polo-playing self-proclaimed multi-millionaire Greg Secker, 39, who adorns his website with images of himself in the company of Prince William and Sir Richard Branson.

Tempted by the lure of making millions of pounds on the foreign exchange market Giraud set herself up as a trader and began investing the savings of people she befriended on the course.

Prosecutor Mr. Hugh Forgun told Isleworth Crown Court: "There is a pattern of money being put into foreign exchange trading and some withdrawals for personal expenditure.

"From the outset fraudulent paperwork is served on the investors that their investments are growing year on year with the effect people don't take any money out and, in fact, put more in."

The prosecution estimate approximately £412,000 was given to Giraud, with only £217,450 returned to her investors during the fraud.

The largest loss, £88,850, was suffered by Mr. Nicholas Brannen, who initially put in £20,000 followed by £90,000.

"The vast majority was lost, his entire life-savings," explained Mr. Forgun. "He took the defendant to the High Court, where she was declared bankrupt and he suffered what he describes as a nervous breakdown."

One-time friend Eulita Kudzi lost all the £45,000 she saved for her son's education. "She describes the loss as devastating."

Retired Catherine Lambert's Caribbean plans were shattered when her £62,000 investment vanished. "She had emigrated to Barbados, but could no longer tay there due to the loss and was forced to return to the UK."

The victim encouraged her brother Bernard Lambert to invest and he lost £10,000 and MS afflicted Sara Holloway lost £5,000. "She says the loss exacerbated her condition."

Giraud's lawyer Mr. Graham Smith said: "This is a sad case and the impact on her friends and colleagues has been significant.

"As the losses continued she and her daughter moved from their £1,150 a month rented house to a two-bedroom flat in order to reduce her lifestyle costs.

"She had an ongoing desire to make good and this was not fraudulent from the outset.

"This started when she divorced and living with a young daughter needed an income to get her on her feet, which led her to Traders University, an institution that feeds the possibility of becoming rich in a short time.

"She met the complainants through foreign exchange trading and they all had a desire to gamble. They were people who put trust in her.

"She was not sending out false invoices from the start, but did it fairly early out of the embarrassment of not successfully trading with the expertise they expected."

The prosecution have been given leave to apply for compensation, but no significant assets have been identified.