They Promised a Green Fortune. Investors Lost ÂŁ70 Million as Directors Bought Supercars, Mansions and a Yacht
🚨 THEY SOLD PEOPLE A DREAM OF “SAVING THE PLANET” — WHILE THEIR OWN LIVES WERE GETTING RICHER.
Thousands of people were persuaded to move their savings and pensions into what appeared to be an environmentally friendly investment.
Trees would grow.
Investments would supposedly multiply.
And the future would be greener.
But behind the polished promises, investigators uncovered a very different story.
Millions of pounds were moving through the company.
And somehow, the men behind the scheme were turning up in Ferraris, Porsches and McLarens… while luxury homes, holidays and even a yacht entered the picture.
Then the trees themselves became part of the mystery.
They really were planted.
So how could an investment involving millions of trees allegedly leave thousands of investors with devastating losses?
And where did the money actually go?
This week, the three men behind the company finally learned their fate in court.
👇 The full story reveals how the “green investment” dream unraveled.
They Promised a Green Fortune. Investors Lost ÂŁ70 Million as Directors Bought Supercars, Mansions and a Yacht
A tree-planting investment marketed as an ethical way to grow retirement savings has ended with three former company directors behind bars after investigators uncovered a ÂŁ70 million fraud that affected around 3,000 investors.
Matthew Pickard, Stephen Greenaway and Paul Laver were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Sept. 3 after admitting fraudulent trading in connection with Ethical Forestry Ltd., a Bournemouth-based business that encouraged members of the public to transfer savings and pension money into forestry projects in Costa Rica.
Together, the three men received a combined sentence of 15 years and nine months.
Pickard was sentenced to six years, Greenaway to five years and three months, and Laver to four years and six months. All three were also disqualified from acting as company directors for 10 years.
But the case has attracted attention not simply because of the amount of money involved.
It is the contrast between what investors believed they were buying and what prosecutors said was happening behind the scenes.
The pitch was about trees, sustainability and future wealth.
The reality, investigators said, involved millions of pounds being diverted while the company’s directors accumulated luxury properties, sports cars, holidays, boats and other expensive possessions.
The green investment pitch
Ethical Forestry operated between 2008 and 2015, offering investors an opportunity to put money into tree plantations in Costa Rica.
The concept was straightforward on paper.
Investors would purchase interests connected to forestry projects. Trees would be planted and, once mature, harvested and sold. The eventual proceeds were supposed to generate substantial returns.
For people approaching retirement, the proposition had an additional appeal: they could potentially grow their pension savings while investing in something presented as environmentally responsible.
The Serious Fraud Office said the company operated a Bournemouth call centre where employees cold-called members of the public.
Some callers reportedly used names such as Richmond Solutions and the Pension Report Service without disclosing that they actually worked for Ethical Forestry.
Potential investors were encouraged to move money from legitimate pension schemes into the forestry investment.
The SFO said approximately 3,000 people ultimately invested around ÂŁ70 million in the scheme. Many of the victims were pensioners.
One reported investor transferred ÂŁ112,000 from a pension after being persuaded that the investment could benefit both his financial future and the environment.
That combination proved powerful.
As prosecutor Kevin Dent KC reportedly described it in court, the proposition mixed financial opportunity with ecological consciousness.
For investors, the trees represented an asset growing quietly in another country.
For prosecutors, however, the financial structure behind the operation told a very different story.
Two million trees — but no realistic route to returns
One of the most striking details of the case is that the forestry project was not entirely fictional.
Trees really were planted in Costa Rica.
Around two million trees were reportedly established using investors’ money.
That fact may have helped make the investment appear legitimate.
But according to the SFO, there was a fundamental problem: no adequate funds had been set aside to maintain the trees or carry out the commercial harvesting necessary to turn them into the returns investors had been promised.
In other words, the existence of plantations did not mean the financial model could deliver what had been sold.
The trees could be growing, but the investment was not being structured in a way that would allow investors to receive the promised profits.
That distinction became central to the prosecution.
The SFO said the directors were effectively hollowing out the business while investors continued to be recruited.
The company eventually collapsed in 2015, leaving investors facing significant losses.
Where did the money go?
This is where the story takes its most dramatic turn.
While investors were waiting for their forestry investments to mature, prosecutors said millions of pounds were being diverted for purposes unrelated to generating the promised returns.
The SFO identified approximately ÂŁ14 million that was taken out of the company through a tax avoidance arrangement.
Of that amount, ÂŁ2.77 million of investor money was used to administer the tax arrangement for the directors’ own benefit, according to investigators.
The defendants also enjoyed lifestyles that stood in stark contrast to the financial difficulties facing many investors.
Court evidence described multimillion-pound homes, high-end cars, luxury holidays, watches and boats.
Matthew Pickard was said to have taken approximately ÂŁ8.2 million from the company.
He purchased a property in Sandbanks, Poole, for roughly ÂŁ4.2 million and spent close to ÂŁ4 million renovating it, including installing a swimming pool.
He also spent approximately ÂŁ283,000 on a yacht and ÂŁ101,000 on a Maserati, according to reporting from the sentencing hearing.
Stephen Greenaway was reported to have received around ÂŁ3.1 million.
He purchased a ÂŁ1.9 million property and spent approximately ÂŁ1.3 million on 26 cars.
The collection reportedly included three Ferraris, five Porsches and a McLaren worth around ÂŁ120,000.
Paul Laver received approximately ÂŁ2.5 million and accumulated 16 cars valued at roughly ÂŁ673,000.
He also spent money on holidays, watches and a home cinema.
The purchases were not limited to cars and property. The men were reported to have taken luxury holidays in destinations including Italy, Thailand, Gran Canaria, the Maldives and Switzerland.
The contrast was particularly stark for victims who had transferred pension savings because they believed they were securing their retirement.
A business that looked convincing
The case illustrates why investment fraud can be difficult to identify from the outside.
Ethical Forestry had a real business structure.
It had employees.
It operated a call centre.
It had forestry projects.
And trees were actually planted.
For someone being contacted about a potential investment, those details could make the proposition appear substantially more credible than a straightforward fictional investment scheme.
The SFO said employees used cold calls and pension reviews as a way of gaining access to potential victims.
People were encouraged to move money away from established pension arrangements and place it into the forestry operation.
The minimum investment was reportedly ÂŁ10,000, while at least one victim invested ÂŁ200,000.
That made the consequences of failure particularly severe.
Unlike money placed into a conventional savings account, pension investors could not simply wait for the market to recover.
For some victims, the money represented decades of accumulated savings.
The collapse
Ethical Forestry eventually collapsed in 2015.
By then, according to the prosecution case, substantial sums had been removed from the business while investors had been left expecting future returns from their forestry holdings.
The company also faced a significant unpaid tax liability.
Sky News reported that the directors’ withdrawals left Ethical Forestry with an additional tax liability of around ÂŁ14 million that it could not meet.
The collapse left investors facing devastating financial consequences.
Some reportedly lost large portions of their retirement savings, while others were left in severe financial difficulty.
The case later became the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation launched in 2017.
In June 2023, the SFO charged the three former directors.
After years of investigation, Pickard, Greenaway and Laver pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in January 2026, ahead of an anticipated trial.
Their guilty pleas meant prosecutors did not have to take the full case to trial.
Sentencing followed in September.
Three men, three prison sentences
The final sentences reflected the scale of the fraud and the individual roles of the defendants.
Pickard received the longest sentence at six years.
Greenaway received five years and three months.
Laver was sentenced to four years and six months.
Together, the sentences totalled 15 years and nine months.
All three were additionally banned from serving as company directors for 10 years.
The SFO said the investigation demonstrated the consequences of exploiting public interest in ethical investments.
Graham McNulty, director of the SFO, said the defendants had preyed on people’s desire to support green investment while taking money from life savings and pensions.
The sentencing judge also reportedly emphasized the difference between legitimate remuneration and what prosecutors characterized as the defendants’ use of company money.
The online reaction
The case has also generated renewed discussion online about so-called “green” or “ethical” investments.
On social media and investment-focused forums, discussion has centered on how a scheme involving genuine trees could nevertheless produce such catastrophic losses.
Some commentators have focused on the psychological appeal of combining environmental responsibility with high financial returns.
Others have pointed to the danger of transferring pension funds after unsolicited calls or “free pension reviews.”
The online discussion should, however, be treated separately from the court findings. Social media commentary cannot establish additional wrongdoing beyond what was proved or admitted in court.
The central facts of the case come from the SFO investigation and the court proceedings.
What investors can learn from the case
The Ethical Forestry scandal offers a particularly striking example of why the underlying mechanics of an investment matter more than its branding.
An investment can sound environmentally responsible and still require careful scrutiny.
In this case, investors were told that trees would eventually be harvested and generate returns. Yet investigators found that insufficient money had been reserved for the maintenance and commercial harvesting of those trees.
That meant the fundamental question was not simply whether trees existed.
It was whether the financial structure surrounding them could actually produce the promised returns.
Another warning sign was the use of cold calls to persuade people to move pension savings.
The SFO said employees contacted potential investors using pension reviews and other approaches before encouraging them to transfer money.
For people who had spent decades building retirement savings, the consequences were enormous.
The case is now moving into its aftermath
The imprisonment of Pickard, Greenaway and Laver marks a major milestone in the long-running investigation.
But the financial consequences for investors will continue long after the sentencing.
The SFO has described compensation for victims as an important element of the case, although the imprisonment of the three men does not automatically mean investors will recover all of the money they lost.
For the victims, the central irony remains difficult to ignore.
They were encouraged to believe their money was being transformed into a long-term environmental investment.
Millions of pounds did go into planting trees.
But prosecutors said the financial foundation required to turn those trees into the promised returns was never properly established.
Meanwhile, the people running the operation were spending millions on properties, cars, holidays and other luxuries.
After seven years, the business collapsed.
The trees remained.
The promised fortunes did not.
And on Sept. 3, after years of investigation, three former directors began prison sentences for the fraud that prosecutors say left around 3,000 people facing the loss of approximately ÂŁ70 million.
The case now stands as a warning that an investment can have an appealing story, a legitimate-looking operation and even tangible assets — and still conceal a devastating financial reality.
