Education · Policy News
Image caption, Jane Bertelli waits for the train that will take her to her day in court. By Joe Campbell South of England It was a day Jane Bertelli did not want to miss—she was heading to Southwark Crown Court. Ever since the men who took £12,000, left to her by an elderly relative, admitted fraud, she had wanted to look them in the eyes. Squeezed into a standard-class seat on a busy commuter train, her mode of transport was a world away from the three men who took her money, and that of 3,000 other people. Ethical Forestry directors Matthew Pickard, Stephen Greenaway, and Paul Laver had a fondness for high-end supercars, including a Maserati, Ferraris, and Porches. All bought with money from investors like Jane. 'Feelings of anger': By contrast, her journey to Reading Station that morning had been undertaken in her 13-year-old Toyota Yaris. "I wish I could replace it, but I don't have the money," she said. "It brought up all the feelings of anger I had for all those years about losing the money." Jane, like many victims, had been drawn into Ethical Forestry's net by the promise of financial returns while supporting reforestation in Costa Rica. Back when she first met her at the start of the year, she showed me the brochures the company had sent to investors from its offices in Bournemouth. The idea also appealed because her late mother had always loved trees.
Image caption, Brochures set out the firm's successes, but increasingly investors' money was paying for the company directors' lavish lifestyle. Sitting in the front room of her compact home in a South Oxfordshire village, she now knew differently. Her money had been siphoned off to help company boss Pickard buy a house for more than £4m on the cliffs just above Sandbanks. A further £3.4m had been spent remodelling the property, including a swimming pool and garden tiles costing £30,000.
Approaching the court, on the final leg of her journey, Jane was in a thoughtful mood. "I think it will be very cathartic. I think it will be good to draw a line under it, to see these people get their just deserts," she said.
Inside court six, as the judge began sentencing, she took a seat alongside others who had lost money. "It's nice to see you're not the only one. It's nice to talk to people about exactly how you felt, to find that they felt the same," she said. "It's good to share stories and connect."
Image caption, The hearing was a chance for many of the firm's victims to meet for the first time. Judge Alexander Milne KC said: "Futures had been blighted, marriages destroyed, and the health and security of people have been taken away from them." For Julie, the words came as a comfort, as did the jail terms ranging from four years and six months to six years. Although it was made clear that Pickard, judged the most culpable of three, could be released in as little as two years. "I was worried, they may get off with this completely and just get community service or something, so I'm very pleased to see all of them go to prison," Julie said. Julie will never get her money back—she does not qualify for any of the official compensation schemes. "To see them in person, to see them face to face, to see who they were," had made the trip worthwhile, she added.
Source: BBC
