Man Sentenced to Eight Years for £11.5 Million Property Fraud After Guilty Plea

Steven Long, 59, of 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. Long defrauded 115 people of a combined £11,577,762 through Universal Wealth Preservation, a company he operated in Ipswich from 2008 to 2018.

He promoted the scheme by distributing leaflets in Kent, Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and by holding seminars at luxury hotels.

Victims transferred properties to the firm in return for annual fees, with the stated goal of shielding assets from care-home costs. Long used client funds to buy multiple properties inside and outside the UK. In one case, Donald Matthews transferred his home in Beyton, Suffolk, to the company in 2008 for an upfront fee of £3,500 and £211 a year.

After Matthews died in December 2016 aged 89 and his wife Olive died in 2017 aged 89, the property sold for £260,000; their sons received none of the proceeds. " Deborah Wildish from Paddock Wood, Kent, and her sister Belinda Bosi from Hailsham, Sussex, remain owed £84,000 from the sale of their parents' house.

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.

His associate Raymond Simpson was jailed for five and a half years after being convicted in his absence of two counts of fraud covering periods in 2014-2018. Judge Gregory Perrins considered 37 victim impact statements before passing sentence. He stated that the offending had taken "a very heavy toll on the lives of so many" and that Long had "abused the trust" of vulnerable people.