Profits of pain

£9.4BN stolen by fraudsters from Britons last year

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hen wellbeing therapist Nancy Laats wanted to invest a £28,000 inheritance, she was pleased to find an ethical way to grow her cash.

She staked an initial £13,000 in Unique Property Investment Group, an assisted living company which promised a monthly 25% return.

After receiving five regular monthly payments of £275, she invested a further £15,000, but two weeks later Unique emailed her saying they had instructed administrators. All of her money was gone.

Nancy features in an ITV Tonight investigation which found scammers stole £9.4billion from Britons last year through everything from fake investment portfolios to fictitious job offers.

Unique's administrators report showed that, although investors like Nancy put over £12.5million into the company, it had just two properties worth £315,000, connected to a genuine Housing Association. But other contracts failed to materialise.

Nancy tells Tonight: "They sent me amazing professional brochures. They said they were in communication with YMCA, it was government backed."

The Tonight team contacted the government, the YMCA and Revolut but they all said they had no connection with the Unique business.

There was "nil" in all the company accounts and just over £1,000,000 paid in inter-company loans.

Nancy says: "I went through a few weeks of calling myself stupid... really pulling myself to shreds."