A north-east man duped out of £50,000 was sent a last-gasp refund cheque – but missed it because he was on a Med cruise.
Inverurie builder Norman Masson, 56, put his pension fund into Alistair Greig’s company Midas and fell victim to a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
And when Greig’s colleagues got wind of the scam in summer 2014, they tried to save some of the victims by posting out cheques.
One of those who raised the alarm in the case sent Mr Masson a cheque – but he was 1,500 miles away on a cruise liner off the Spanish coast.
A neighbour put the cheque on Mr Masson’s kitchen table – and he found it two weeks later.
But by then, Greig had drained his accounts and the authorities had frozen them.
‘The cheque would have cleared’
“I was on a Mediterranean cruise. By the time I got back and tried to check it, they had frozen all of Greig’s accounts.
“If I hadn’t have been on holiday, that cheque would have cleared.
“I tried to pay it into the building society. It took a week or so to come back – and then they told me it had bounced.
“I was a bit confused and Midas told me everything would be sorted out – then the police raided their office.
‘It caused a lot of stress’
“Alistair Greig assured me ‘oh don’t worry, you’ll get your money’.
“He put a cheque into my account for the amount and it bounced.
“It’s caused a lot of stress.”
Mr Masson met Greig through a mutual friend and first invested into his scheme in June 2010.
At this point, Greig had been a law-abiding financial advisor for several decades and was properly regulated with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which was replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FSA).
‘There were no red flags’
Mr Masson said: “I had no immediate plans for the money, I was just reinvesting it. It was basically my pension pot.
“The interest rates were about 1% or 2% more than the high-street rate – nothing that would make you believe it was too good to be true.
“At that point, Greig had decades of experience as a legitimate financial advisor.
“There were no red flags. Nothing amiss.
“Sometimes I would get a phone from Midas to say ‘the investment is up, do you want to roll it over or take it out?’.
“It would have been about four years that I invested.
‘It turned my life upside down’
“Even in 2014, it was progressing normally.”
All was going well until Mr Masson headed off on his two-week cruise trip – then everything changed.
Mr Masson said: “It was devastating. Finding out that Midas had gone under and Greig had been arrested turned my life upside down.
“The work I had to do to make that money and save it up. I was working weekends and nights – all for him to do that. It was pretty stressful.
“It affected everybody in the family.
“My daughter and her partner were renting their home at the time.
“It was tough on them as well because they wanted to get their house and I promised them money to help with a deposit and that money was good and I couldn’t do anything to help for a while.”
Mr Masson was so angry at Greig’s betrayal that he agreed to give evidence at the trial.
He said: “I was quite happy to go and take the stand.
‘In court, he looked at me like a pal’
“I definitely saw it as my day in court – a chance to tell my story and say what he’d done.
“When I walked into the court in Edinburgh, Greig actually looked at me like I was still a pal – gave me a wee nod.
“I couldn’t believe his front. It was unbelievable what it was like.
“It was almost an act for him and he tried to blame everyone else.
“I was displeased with the 14 years, so 10 is terrible. He’ll be out in a year or so.
“I’m a strong believer in karma. He’ll get his comeuppance. His reputation is everything and he no longer has one because of what he’s done.
“He’ll probably move abroad when he gets out of jail.
Mr Masson discovered that fellow Midas victim Colin Stewart had pulled together a group of 91 victims to take legal action for compensation.
That meant Mr Masson had to put in another £15,000 to the legal fund.
He said: “Because of the amount we lost, we really had no option to put the money up for the legal costs and there was no guarantee it would achieve anything.
But eventually, there was success.
Three golden chances
The civil case the group took resulted in all 184 Midas victims getting compensation.
However, Mr Masson only got some of his money back.
He said: “I reckon I’m about £15,000 down in total now.”
One shocking element of the case is the FSA missed three golden chances to stop Greig’s offending.
Had they caught the first one, all but one of Greig’s victims would not have lost a penny.
“If the FSA had done their job, most people wouldn’t be in this situation.
“One complaint maybe could slip by, but not three complaints.
“The only thing that is missing here is the political will. We should be given refunds.
“We got a letter of an apology from the FCA (which succeeded the FSA) – but that’s a kick in the teeth.”
Regulator snubbed campaign event
North-east MPs joined campaigners at Westminster for an event last Wednesday in a bid to persuade the FCA to fully compensate Greig’s victims.
However, nobody from the FCA bothered to show.
Mr Masson’s MP, Richard Thomson was at the event.
He told the P&J: “This is a shocking case of regulatory failure that the FCA should be making amends for.
“We saw recently with the Horizon scandal that, as much as those in high office might say there is no way that the right outcome can be achieved, it can happen with the right people making the right decisions.
‘We understand the distress’
“And all we are asking for is a fair outcome for a group of people who have had a torrid time at the hands of a fraudster.”
An FCA spokesperson said: “We understand the distress suffered by those caught up in the fraudulent actions of Alistair Greig.
“We have apologised to those affected by the fraud for the fact that our predecessor organisation did not act more quickly at the time and we have worked to recover money for investors.
“The case has been considered by the Financial Regulators’ Complaints Commissioner who determined that it would not be appropriate for the FCA to pay any form of compensation and it would not be appropriate for us to cover the legal fees for a case we were not directly involved in.
“We appreciate that this may be frustrating for investors.
“We take our accountability to Parliament seriously but in this instance we have clearly set out our final position.”
