Ipswich fraudster jailed after stealing £11.5m from 115 victims

Steven Long was jailed for eight years and four months after stealing £11.5m from 115 victims through businesses he ran under the Ipswich-based Universal Wealth Preservation banner. Long, of Mead Road in Stowmarket, Suffolk, used retirement and care-planning language to target elderly people and others who were persuaded to hand over their savings.

Long admitted two counts of fraud by abuse of trust spanning more than 10 years. Victims put in more than £11m over that period, and the case was uncovered after an eight-year investigation. Court coverage described the operation as a Ponzi scheme, with Long and co-defendant Raymond Simpson linked to the offending.

The sales pitch turned on reassurance. In Sheffield, Roger and Jackie Wade were told at a Universal Wealth seminar that putting their property into a trust would protect it from care-home fees and inheritance tax. That promise was central to the wider Universal Wealth scandal, and it showed how the scheme moved people from cautious interest to compliance by presenting itself as a way to preserve homes, pensions and family wealth rather than siphon them away.

For families, carers, banks and regulators, the warning signs were in the details Long used to win trust: seminars for older savers, claims that property could be shielded from care costs and tax, and repeated requests to place money into schemes tied to a network of businesses. Once that money moved, the sums were life-changing. Roger and Jackie Wade, who had spent 30 years building their savings, came close to losing everything they had worked for.

The fallout extended beyond Suffolk. Police said there had been more than 100 allegations of fraud linked to Ipswich-based Universal Wealth Management, pointing to a broader web of complaints around the same name and same style of sales pitch. A STEP-linked information page also asks whether readers were clients of Universal Wealth Preservation, reflecting how many families were left trying to trace where their money went and whether it could be recovered.