A serial fraudster who persuaded investors to hand over their life savings in a gold trading scam has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Christian Fallon defrauded members of the public out of £1.9m by taking their savings and claiming to invest them in various schemes, including trading precious metals and property investment. Instead he spent the money on private education for his children and luxury holidays.

Isleworth Crown Court heard that Mr Fallon, who has a long record of fraud and has been banned from working in investments since 1994 by the FCA and its predecessors, persuaded his clients to part with tens of thousands of pounds at a time, using a loan note, a form of IOU, to cover his tracks. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and disqualified from acting as a director for five years.

Despite giving reassurances to the people he defrauded and telling them that he was making money for them by trading in gold bullion and other investments, he was actually spending their savings on himself, using the money to pay for private education, meals in top restaurants and luxury holidays.

In total he took £1.9 million from his investors but left them with a net loss of £885,625. He was sentenced yesterday (5 October).

Nina Montalbano, at lawyer in the Specialist Fraud Division of the CPS, said: “Many of Fallon’s victims had trusted him with their life savings but he spent them on sending his children to private school, enjoying meals in top London restaurants and going on luxury holidays.

“Fallon tried to cover his tracks by using false documents. Evidence from the CPS proved, however, that he had told them they were investing in gold and property with the promise of dividends that he never provided.”