Robin Forster, the director of a Ponzi-style unlawful and unauthorised care home investment scheme which saw investors lost £57m, has been banned for 14 years.

Mr Forster, 42, was the director of companies which took £57m from investors by convincing them to invest in an unauthorised care home investment scheme.

He also deprived creditors of more than £2m through inter-connected business transfers in the days prior to his companies entering administration, according to the Insolvency Service which won the ban.

He has been banned as a company director until 2038.

Last year the FCA won a civil case against the care home investment scheme.

The High Court ruled in favour of the FCA against Robin Forster, whose company took £57 million from 380 investors in an illegal care home investment scheme centred on the North and North East.

Investors were sold a long-term lease in a room in a care home which was then sub-let the room back to the Qualia companies. Investors were promised annual returns of between 8% to 10% of the purchase price over the period of the sublease. The leases cost between £50,000 and £75,000.

Qualia was based in Leeds and at its peak had 10 care homes and employed nearly 900 staff across the North. 

Mr Forster was a director at Qualia Care Properties Ltd and Qualia Care Developments Ltd, which the High Court ruled last year ran an unlawful investment fund. 

Mr Forster, of Kings Road, Colwyn Bay, was given the disqualification order at the Manchester District Registry of the High Court earlier this month. The order took effect from 26 February.

In the previous court case, the High Court agreed with the FCA that the scheme was unlawful and amounted to an Unauthorised Collective Investment Scheme (UCIS). The court also agreed the returns promised to investors were never likely to be achievable and that Mr Forster had made false and misleading statements to investors about the sustainability of the scheme.

The FCA’s action was also against the main sales agent for the scheme, Fortem Global Limited, which was owned by Mr Forster and a Richard Tasker. The Qualia companies are now in administration and Fortem Global is in liquidation too.

Prior to the Qualia scheme, Mr Forster was involved with MBI companies which operated a very similar investment scheme to Qualia. The FCA has issued a claim in the High Court arguing that the MBI scheme was also a Collective Investment Scheme which was being operated unlawfully without FCA authorisation.

Mike Smith, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:  “Robin Forster was the director of companies which put investor funds at risk through an unauthorised care home investment scheme. 

“Forster made false and misleading statements to investors, promising them returns which were never likely to be achievable. He also transferred funds to a connected company just days before both Qualia Care Properties Ltd and Qualia Care Developments Ltd went into administration. 

“His actions fall well below the standards the Insolvency Service expects of company directors and we are pleased to have secured a disqualification order lasting until February 2038.”

Qualia Care Properties Ltd and Qualia Care Developments Ltd offered investments in care homes mainly in the north-east of England between February 2016 and September 2020. 

Investors incurred losses of an estimated £57,834,900 through the scheme. The FCA is currently seeking recovery of the funds. 

Mr Forster caused Qualia Care Properties Ltd and Qualia Care Developments Ltd to make three transfers totalling more than £2 million to Qualia Care Ltd, in the four days prior to the companies entering administration in September 2020. The inter-company transactions were made at a time when Mr Forster ought to have been aware of outstanding liabilities of at least £5.9 million due to investors. 

Some £1,030,289.95 was transferred from Qualia Care Developments Ltd to Qualia Care Ltd on 7 September 2020. The following day, a further £577,500 was transferred to the same company, also from Qualia Care Developments Ltd. Mr Forster caused Qualia Care Properties Ltd to transfer £410,000 to Qualia Care Ltd on 10 September 2020. One day later, both Qualia Care Properties Ltd and Qualia Care Developments Ltd entered administration. Both companies were liquidated in the summer of 2022. Qualia Care Ltd went into administration in October 2022.