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Mary Nash (bottom left), 65, Susan Crane (top
right), 68, and Hazel Cameron (top centre), 54, are awaiting sentence after
admitting operating the scheme. Sally Phillips (top left), 34, and, Jane Smith
(bottom right), 50, and Rita Lomas (bottom centre), 49, were all given
suspended sentences for their roles and three others, chairman Laura Fox, 69,
Jennifer Smith-Hayes, 69, and Carol Chalmers, 68, have already been jailed for
their roles.
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A group of 'greedy' middle-aged
women masterminded a £21million get-rich-quick pyramid scheme, Dail Mail/BBC reports.
The group, all
from Somerset, encouraged thousands of vulnerable men and women to 'beg, borrow
or steal' £3,000 to put into the scheme - which left 90 per cent of investors
facing losses, between May 2008 and April 2009. The scheme, called Give and
Take, quickly spread from Bath and Bristol to Gloucester, Bridgwater,
Cheltenham, Torquay, Weston-super-Mare and Wales.
Prosecutor
Mike Bennett said: 'This wasn't a bunch of ladies sitting around playing
bridge. This wasn't a kitchen hobby, this was a scheme that sucked in a lot of
people and which worked on the promise of them receiving riches way beyond
their initial investment.'
Victims were lured by the promise
they would receive a £24,000 payout when they reached the top of their pyramid,
with organizers promising they 'could not lose'.
Committee members behind the scheme
pocketed up to £92,000 each, while nearly 90 per cent of the women they
recruited lost out - with some left facing £15,000 losses.
The scheme, also known as Key to a
Fortune, was hidden under a veil of secrecy as members were banned from writing
about it, Bristol Crown Court heard.
But the pyramid was uncovered by
authorities when a disgruntled employer in Bristol contacted Trading Standards
to complain that it was being promoted in his workplace.
Eleven women, aged between 34 and
69, became the first to be prosecuted for such a
Following two lengthy trials, in
2012 and 2013, three were convicted of the charges against them, three pleaded
guilty, one was acquitted and two juries could not reach a verdict on another.
A third trial - a retrial of three women a jury could also
not reach verdicts on - was due to begin at Bristol Crown Court on Wednesday
but the defendants entered guilty pleas before a jury was sworn.
Reporting of the case was banned until the conclusion of all
trials and lifted this morning following legal representation from the media.
Judge Mark Horton will sentence three of the women - charts
coordinator Mary Nash, 65, committee secretary Susan Crane, 68, and games
coordinator Hazel Cameron, 54 - in October.
Nash, Crane and Cameron all admitted operating and promoting
the pyramid scheme.
Sally Phillips, 34, and Jane Smith, 50, both of Bristol, and
Rita Lomas, 49, of Whitchurch, Somerset admitted promoting the scheme in 2012.
Phillips received a three-month suspended prison sentence,
Smith a four-month suspended sentence and Lomas a four-and-a-half month
suspended sentence.
Chairman Laura Fox, 69, Jennifer Smith-Hayes, 69, and Carol
Chalmers, 68, were convicted of operating and promoting the scheme during a
trial in 2012.
Fox, of East Harptree, Somerset, Smith-Hayes, of Bristol, and
Chalmers, of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, were each sentenced to nine months'
imprisonment.
No verdict was reached following two trials of Tracey
Laurence, 60, of Bradley Stoke, South Gloucestershire, while Rhalina Yuill, 34,
of Bristol, was acquitted of promoting a pyramid scheme on her second trial.
judge Horton said of the case: 'This particular scheme caused
a loss to the general public of around £19 million.
'A
number of these women [victims] suffered enormous and in some cases lifelong
financial hardship due to their involvement in this scheme.
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