Five people have been jailed for their parts in the operation of an unauthorised collective investment scheme which led to 110 investors losing over £4.3m.

Scott Crawley, 47, of Bromley, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud, one of operating a regulated activity without authorisation and sentenced to a total of eight years’ imprisonment.

Dale Walker, 55, of Sevenoaks, was convicted of one count of aiding and abetting the carrying on of a regulated activity and one count of possessing criminal property and sentenced to a total of 5 ½ years’ imprisonment.

Daniel Forsyth, 33, of Bromley, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, including 15 months false and misleading information to the FCA in a compelled interview.

Aaron Petrou, 48, of Orpington, pleaded guilty to operating a regulated activity without authorisation and was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment.

Ross Peters, 29, of Bromley, was sentenced to 5½ years’ imprisonment for pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud and operating regulated activity without authorisation. Peters also breached his restraint order.

The group received sentences totalling 26 years’ immediate imprisonment.

Between July 2008 and November 2011 the defendants, which included three other men, were involved in the operation of an unauthorised collective investment scheme through three companies: Plott Investments Ltd, which changed its name to Plott UK Ltd, European Property Investments (UK) Ltd and Stirling Alexander Ltd.

The investigation found salesmen had cold-called potential investors to sell them agricultural land that the companies had bought for minimal amounts as well as land the companies did not own.

Using sales scripts, misleading promotional material and high-pressured sales techniques, they lied about the current and future value of the land and persuaded investors to spend a grand total of at least £4.3m on the land with no return.

In sentencing, Judge Leonard QC described the scheme as a “very substantial and deliberate fraud on the public.”

He stated that the operation was “a subtle and cruel fraud because it involves the concept of owning land, a commodity that the public are bound to think has value and on which they cannot lose and on which they can easily be persuaded that they can make very substantial profits.”

The investigation by the FCA, Operation Cotton, is one of the largest undertaken by the FCA to date and involved the use of civil powers against two of the companies through which the scheme operated.

Georgina Philippou, acting director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “The FCA will take strong action, through both the civil and criminal courts, against those who operate illegal investment schemes and those who assist them like solicitors.

“People put their homes and retirements at risk on the back of promises of high returns that were never going to be realised. The severity of the sentences shows how seriously the courts view this kind of offending.”