ESG Enforcement Tracker

In August 2018, David Diaz, Ludovic Black, Stephen Wilson, Robert Ross, Niall Hastie and Kenneth Reid were found guilty of running a £17 million fraudulent scheme to install solar panels, which defrauded 1,500 victims. A further individual, Gary McVey, was acquitted. The men were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud by false representation. In October 2018, they were sentenced to a total of 30 years’ and four months’ imprisonment.

The SFO’s case was that the men devised a scam to sell and install solar energy panels which would enable their customers to generate extra income in addition to the government’s feed-in tariff. However, in reality, they manipulated their victims by using deceitful sales techniques, outright lies, and false guarantees of reimbursement to misrepresent the offer and maximise their sales, which ultimately led to victims losing between £10,000 and £20,000 each.

In November 2019, Stephen Wilson and Robert Ross were ordered to pay confiscation totalling £413,206.10. In January 2020, a confiscation order was made for Kenneth Reid and Niall Hastie, totalling £434,835.73. The confiscation orders were made under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

On 10 July 2020, Ludovic Black appealed against his conviction. In a judgment handed down on 17 July 2020, the appeal against conviction and the renewed application for permission to appeal against conviction were dismissed.