Senior Citizens Defrauded of Millions Through Property Trust Scheme

Conman targeted the elderly to defraud – Donald Matthews, now eighty years old, believed he was securing his family’s financial security when he transferred ownership of his property to a business in 2008. The company, which he was told would safeguard his assets, was called Universal Wealth Preservation. Tragically, following his passing in 2016, the organization disposed of his Suffolk residence for hundreds of thousands of pounds, leaving his children with nothing from the sale.

Investigations later revealed that Steven Long, the fifty-nine-year-old leader of UWP based in Kesgrave near Ipswich, had orchestrated this deception against more than one hundred and fourteen victims. The collective financial damage exceeded eleven million pounds. At Southwark Crown Court on Friday, Long received a prison term of eight years and four months for his crimes. Paul Matthews, Donald’s sixty-seven-year-old son and a retired postman from Lowestoft, Suffolk, condemned his father’s treatment as “disgusting.”

The Trust That Failed

According to Paul, his father received promotional material in 2008 outlining how entrusting one’s home to Long and UWP could shield assets. The primary objective, Paul explained, was “to protect the house from being used for care home fees at a later date” while ensuring it remained available for relatives to eventually sell. Although Paul was uncertain whether his father consulted legal counsel, he confirmed Donald possessed full mental capacity when executing the agreement. The arrangement required an initial payment of £3,500 alongside annual contributions of £211.

Following Donald’s death in December 2016 at age eighty-nine, and subsequently Olive’s passing in 2017 also at eighty-nine, Paul initiated proceedings to market their Beyton property near Bury St Edmunds through UWP. Initially confident that “everything was going according to plan,” concerns emerged by January 2018 when the transaction appeared delayed and correspondence deteriorated. “The trust is supposed to send the money to the beneficiaries, in this case me and my brother, which they never did, they kept it,” Paul recounted.

The residence ultimately fetched £260,000, yet Paul never received any portion of these funds, leaving him “angry.” After consulting a solicitor who recommended involving law enforcement, officers verified that additional victims had come forward. Donald Matthews believed he had signed over his home so his children could sell it in the future rather than use it for care home fees “My parents have worked all their lives to provide for their children and their grandchildren ultimately and that’s been stolen,” Paul stated. “I think it’s disgusting… I don’t trust anyone anymore,” he added.

More Victims Come Forward

Fraudster jailed over £11.5m scam targeting elderly Deborah Wildish had hoped to use money from her parent’s house sale to retire, but said she will have to continue working to care for her ill husband Deborah Wildish from Paddock Wood, Kent, and her sister Belinda Bosi, from Hailsham, Sussex, similarly lost thousands to UWP. In 2016 a leaflet came through the door, detailing UWP and what Long could offer. Thinking it could be good to start a trust for their father, they attended a meeting at a hotel in Eastbourne where Wildish said there was an “impressive set up”.

The sisters described Long as trustworthy and noted he assisted them in selling a flat belonging to their parents without complications. When both parents died, they “thought nothing of dealing” with him again to sell their house and he “seemed like the perfect person to do that,” Wildish explained. Deborah and Belinda had tried to sell their father’s home with UWP but are still owed £84,000 Long even came to visit them at Wildish’s home to discuss the future.

“When you meet someone face to face, you feel you know them… we felt we could trust him,” Bosi, sixty-five, explained. “He seemed to be interested in your story, interested in what you were planning to do, if you needed help or guidance… we felt he knew us by name, we weren’t just a number.” During the sale, Long and his staff kept promising the sisters they would see their money, which Bosi needed to buy a property in Portugal. Some money came in “dribs and drabs” according to Wildish, but they are still missing £84,000. Wildish had been hoping to use the money to retire and said her dad would be “absolutely devastated” by what had happened.

Long operated multiple enterprises under the UWP banner in Ipswich between 2008 and 2018, according to the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit. He promoted his services by distributing leaflets through residential doorsteps throughout England, reaching areas including Kent, Essex, and Bedfordshire.