John Burford, 85, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, defrauded over 100 investors out of £1m between 2016 and 2021 through his firm, Financial Trading Strategies Limited, where he was the sole director.

Burford duped investors by offering investment opportunities in three self-named funds, despite lacking FCA authorisation. The FCA found he repeatedly misled investors about fund performance, concealed losses and used their money to buy property and support his lifestyle.

Before setting up his own firm, Burford, a physicist, worked for a time for NASA in Washington in the manned Mars exploration team and then as a commodity trading advisor at a Los Angeles firm.