A UK company that helped foreign boiler rooms cheat British investors out of £4 million has been closed down by the High Court.

Securetrade & Title Company, based in East Sussex, was placed in liquidation last night at the request of the Financial Services Authority.

The FSA told the court that the company helped arrange unauthorised share deals worth £4 million for around 500 UK investors.

Boiler rooms cold-call potential customers and use high-pressure sales techniques to convince them to buy shares, usually in companies that are not listed on a recognised stock exchange, making them very difficult to sell.

Securetrade & Title did not attempt to sell the shares directly but acted as agent for the boiler rooms collecting money from investors and supplying them with share certificates.

Jonathan Phelan, the FSA’s head of retail enforcement, said: "This action shows that where part of a boiler room's operations takes place in the UK, the FSA can and will take direct and decisive action to protect consumers."

But Mr Phelan conceded the move has come too late to protect investors.

"Unfortunately, because Securetrade & Title was not authorised, investors will not have access to the compensation and complaints schemes," he said.

The FSA said consumers who believe they have a claim against the company should contact the UK Insolvency Service.

An FSA spokeswoman said the agency routinely informs the Serious Fraud Office of its findings but declined to say if it had made a specific recommendation to investigate Securetrade & Title.

The SFO declined to comment.

In June, the FSA said it receives around 100 complaints a month from people targetted by boiler rooms and that those who invest lose an average of £20,000 each.

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