A DERBYSHIRE bookkeeper who enticed his clients with the promise of huge and nearinstant profits has been jailed for 18 months in the first successful prosecution by the FSA for breach of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

Alan Evitts, an unqualified accountant, pleaded guilty at Derby Crown Court this week to taking more than £204,000 in illegal deposits.

In one instance he promised to turn a client’s £1,500 into £2,000 in seven days.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Hamilton expressed amazement that the victims believed the promised rates of return — equivalent to many thousands of per cent on an annualised basis. “The court can only yet again express astonishment that any investor in almost any field of finance can ever think that a return at that level is something that has ever had any realistic prospect of being fulfilled,” the judge said.

Evitts approached his small business clients for deposits supposedly to finance deals and investments. However, the new deposits were used to repay earlier investors. At least 14 people fell for his pitch. Some lost more than £10,000. They included a publican and a car valeting business. They do not qualify for compensation since Evitts, of Glossop, was not an authorised deposit-taker.

Evitts, 49 and married, continued to take deposits even after giving the Financial Services Authority an undertaking to stop in April 2002. He was later restrained by an injunction, which also froze his assets. He was later made bankrupt.

David Mayhew, the FSA’s acting enforcement director, said: “The FSA can and will take action against illegal deposit-takers.”

He added: “Mr Evitts got into financial trouble and abused the trust of his clients to stave off the evil day. He encouraged them to lend him money for fictitious investment opportunities, but in reality he used it to pay debts to other investors.”

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