An investment adviser has been given an eight and half year prison sentence and banned as a director for 10 years after conning England and Chelsea footballer Gary Cahill out of £800,000.

Stewart Mark Groves (37), of Bawtry, Doncaster, was handed a lengthy jail sentence this week at Sheffield Crown Court for fraud by misrepresentation and in a separate hearing in Lincoln last year was disqualified as a director of a limited company for 10 years.

The details have only now been made available after the conclusion of criminal proceedings.

The Insolvency Service said that Mr Groves was the director of Rapid Finance Ltd, a company set up to make investments on behalf of a single investor. Gary Cahill was his client and Mr Groves provided advice on pensions, mortgages and property.

Gary Cahill said in a victim impact statement during the criminal case that he had been badly affected by the breach of trust by Mr Groves, someone he considered a friend. Mr Groves was believed to have had a number of celebrity clients.

With an initial investment of £500,000, Stewart Groves managed the company under a shareholder and loan agreement.

However, the Lincoln court ordered the company to be wound up in September 2015 following petitions by the sole investor, which triggered further investigations by the Insolvency Service.

Investigators discovered that instead of making legitimate investments, Stewart Groves transferred a “significant proportion” of the money he was trusted to invest into his own accounts.

To cover his tracks, he twice supplied false reports to the investor, including falsified bank statements and accounts, so that the investor believed he was investing as agreed. These reports encouraged further investments of more than £300,000.

Over the course of two years, more than £800,000 was invested in the company and more than £700,000 of it was transferred to accounts belonging to Mr Groves and connected parties, without the investor being made aware.

Gerard O’Hare, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Stewart Groves intentionally misled the company’s sole investor into believing his funds were being invested securely and the false reports supplied even lead to more money being provided.

“This behaviour will not be tolerated and this ban should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to act in a similar way that they have a duty to act in the best interests of the company – not themselves.”

The separate criminal investigation into Stewart Groves by South Yorkshire Police found him guilty of fraud by misrepresentation and in a recent eight-and-a-half-year prison term.

Earlier this year the Daily Mail and the Sun reported that Mr Groves had worked in the past for the Zurich Advice Network and Mayfair-based Berkeley Taylor in 2010. According to the FCA register he was an appointed representative of the Openwork network from 24 January 2011 to 16 May 2014.