Three brothers and another man have been disqualified for 14 years following their parts in a multimillion pound land banking scam involving over 100 victims.

Barinua Carr Nwikpo, 40, John Ekpobari Nwikpo, 38, Daniel Nwikpo, 35, all from London, and Bradley Peter Ferry, 38, from South Ockendon, operated the scam through Tullett Brown Ltd.

All four men used fake names as part of the scam, which involved selling worthless greenbelt land to members of the public.

One site in Cheadle near Manchester was sold to investors on the hope that it would increase in value by being developed as part of the extension of the A555 Manchester Airport Link road.

Tullett Brown bought this 2-acre piece of land for £36,000 in September 2009, divided it into 28 plots and sold them to unsuspecting victims for a total of £289,000.

Stockport Council is now seeking to purchase the land for the building of the airport link road and have placed a value on the land of £30,000, which is even less than Tullett Brown paid over five years ago.

Paul Titherington, a Senior Official Receiver in the Public Interest Unit, said the land being sold by the company was simply not suitable for investment purposes.

“Unfortunately the victims were persuaded to part with their money by sharp sales techniques used by the company and its brokers.

“As with many land bankers the scammers simply moved into selling carbon credits to the same victims.

“Unfortunately carbon credits, in particular VERs, are an even worse investment than the land.

“The only people that profited from this operation were the Nwikpos and their salesman.”