A financial services director has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after fraudulently obtaining over £13m from investors’ savings and pensions.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Alistair Greig, owner of Midas Financial Solutions (Aberdeen), convinced more than 140 investors to put their money into a non-existent, guaranteed, short-term deposit scheme.

He claimed that he had access to a high interest Royal Bank of Scotland account in which he would safely deposit investors’ money.

In February, the court heard from Jonathan Knowles, a former mortgage adviser at Midas Financial Services (Aberdeen), that Greig was the “sole conduit” for the scheme and there were no brochures or documents containing further information for investors.

Almost £6m of investors savings found its way into Greig’s personal accounts, funding a lavish lifestyle of expensive cars and trips to Ascot, as well as the expansion of his personal fortune.

Some investors received payments back from the Ponzi scheme but the court heard that these were funded through fresh deposits from other investors.

On sentencing, Lord Tyre said: “I have read the victim impact statements provided by a number, but by no means all, of the people who lost pensions and life savings because they believed what you told them about where their precious money was to be invested, and your false guarantees as to its safety.

“The statements reflect the tone of the evidence we heard from people who had been left to face retirement without the cushion of savings that they had expected to enjoy. It may be that some of these people will recover some of their losses through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, but that does not of itself reflect any credit on you.”

Greig denied committing the fraud and allegedly told a social worker that he was “dumbfounded” at having been convicted.

Lord Tyre told Grieg: “Many of these people have had their lives ruined by the fallout from the failure of the scheme, and yet you persist in asserting – without a shred of evidence led at the trial to justify it – that they were the ones responsible for the fraud, and that they are now conspiring to place the blame on you, and were all lying in their evidence to the court.”

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