Fraud victims to receive £75,000 compensation after pension funds seized

Thirty-three victims of a long-running fraud in north Wales are set to receive compensation totalling £75,000 following a successful financial confiscation review by police investigators.

The breakthrough comes more than a decade after Gwyn Roberts, 57, from Caernarfon, ran a fraudulent vehicle-sourcing business across north Wales between 2014 and 2015.

Roberts targeted local residents, including elderly people, by offering to sell their vehicles on their behalf or source replacement cars. Many victims handed over their cars and significant sums of money, only to receive nothing in return.

In some cases, victims lost both their vehicles and thousands of pounds in cash, leaving families facing serious financial hardship.

Following an investigation by North Wales Police, Roberts was charged in 2017 with 25 fraud-related offences. He was convicted after a trial in March 2019 and sentenced to seven years in prison.

At a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing later that year, the court found that he had benefited from his criminal activity by more than £769,000.

However, at the time of sentencing, Roberts had no recoverable assets, and the court imposed a nominal £1 confiscation order, meaning victims initially received no compensation.

Police financial investigators continued to monitor the case and identified that Roberts was due to receive a private pension once he reached the eligible age. When those funds became accessible, the case was reopened using POCA variation and reconsideration powers.

As a result, the North Wales Regional Organised Crime Unit’s Economic Crime Unit successfully secured just under £100,000 from Roberts’ pension. After legal and administrative costs, £75,000 is now being distributed to the 33 victims, or to their next of kin where victims have since died.

‘Positive outcome’

Senior Financial Investigator William Furnivall, who leads the unit’s asset confiscation enforcement work, said the outcome showed police would continue pursuing offenders long after conviction.

He said many victims had resigned themselves to never recovering any of their losses, adding that returning money to them—particularly at Christmas—was a positive outcome after years of waiting.

The case highlights how confiscation powers can be used years after sentencing to recover criminal proceeds and provide some measure of justice to victims of fraud, even when offenders initially appear to have no assets available.