Man Jailed Eight Years for £11.5 Million Property Trust Fraud

Steven Long, 59, from Kesgrave near Ipswich, was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison at Southwark Crown Court on 17 July 2026 after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of trust. BBC News reported that Long defrauded 115 people of a combined £11,577,762 through Universal Wealth Preservation, a company he ran in Ipswich from 2008 to 2018.

Long advertised the scheme by distributing leaflets across Kent, Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and held seminars at luxury hotels.

Victims signed over properties in exchange for annual fees, with the stated aim of shielding assets from care-home costs. BBC News reported that Long later used client funds to purchase multiple properties in and outside the UK. One victim, Donald Matthews, transferred his home in Beyton, Suffolk, to the company in 2008 for an upfront payment of £3,500 and £211 annually.

After Matthews died in December 2016 aged 89 and his wife Olive died in 2017 aged 89, the property sold for £260,000; his sons received none of the proceeds. Paul Matthews, 67, a retired postman from Lowestoft, described the outcome as "disgusting".

Deborah Wildish from Paddock Wood, Kent, and her sister Belinda Bosi from Hailsham, Sussex, are still owed £84,000 from the sale of their parents' house.

Wildish said she had hoped to use the funds to retire. Long was arrested in April 2018 and served eight months in jail later that year for contempt of court after refusing to disclose information about missing client money. Raymond Simpson, Long's associate, was jailed for five and a half years after being convicted in his absence of two counts of fraud covering periods in 2014-2018.