A KNUTSFORD businessman has been banned from running a company after his ‘deceitful activities’ lost savers millions of pounds from hard-earned pensions.

Christopher Bateman has been disqualified for 14 years from becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without permission of the court.

A judge rebuked his behaviour as ‘an appalling exploitation of relatively unsophisticated investors’.

The Insolvency Service’s investigations were triggered when two connected companies, GCC Management Ltd and Amek Solutions Ltd, entered into insolvency procedures.

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The 49-year-old and his business partner, Nicola Fairweather, 48, from Macclesfield, were directors of both companies.

GCC Management was an unregulated company that offered people the opportunity to invest in the purchase of care homes, with the promise of fixed rate returns of 10 to 30 per cent.

Amek Solutions advised on and/or arranged investments in GCC Management.

Investigators found Bateman caused Amek Solutions to breach the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The misconduct included advising people, many being unsophisticated investors, to transfer funds from their pensions.

Amek failed to advise investors to seek independent financial advice and did not have authority to encourage investments.

Amek Solutions promoted GCC Management’s scheme to at least 133 people, who invested close to £6.3 million from their pensions despite not being protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Amek Solutions was rewarded by receiving more than £5.4 million in commission from GCC Management.

Investigators also looked into the affairs of GCC Management and found that when the company entered into liquidation, investors were owed £13.2 million.

GCC Management produced misleading and unrealistic marketing materials based on a business plan which lacked commercial viability, there were no mitigation plans to help investors if returns couldn’t be made, and the company sent false information to investors about when their returns would be repaid.

By September 2012, GCC Management only had one operating care home that had generated income, which was much lower than expected.

However, the company continued to push their investment opportunities to dupe more investors.

Investigators calculated that at least 243 people invested more than £11.6 million with GCC Management.

Of these, 166 investors transferred more than £7.8 million from their existing pensions.

From the funds they received through deception, GCC Management made unaccounted payments worth millions that did not benefit the company or its investors.

This included £1.4 million paid to connected companies Bateman and Fairweather were directors of and another £1.4 million to foreign exchange companies.

Robert Clarke, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Our thorough investigations uncovered extensive abuse of investors who have lost millions of pounds through Bateman and Fairweather’s deceitful activities.

“Many investors were regular people who were not familiar with investments and were duped to transfer money from their hard-earned pensions.

“The judge commented in court that this was an appalling exploitation of relatively unsophisticated investors.

“Thankfully, Bateman and Fairweather have been removed from the corporate arena for a significant amount of time and this should send a clear message to other company directors that there are serious consequences if you dupe those seeking to invest pension funds to best effect.”

Fairweather has been banned from running a company for 11 years.