Twin brothers have been jailed for a total of 52 months after defrauding 72 victims out of £1.6m in a property investment fraud.

54-year-olds, Paul John Aspden of Lytham St Annes and Peter Keith Aspden of Crosshouse, Millport, were jailed at Leeds Crown Court for 42 months and 10 months respectively.

The twins were co-directors of a company called Independent Property Consultants Limited (IPC) which sold off-plan, overseas properties to investors.

The pair were each charged with fraudulent trading in Bulgaria and fraudulent trading in Cape Verde where Peter Aspden had a home.

In May 2014, Paul Aspden pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in Bulgaria and offered an alternative plea of Making a False and Misleading Statement as to Services, Contrary to section 14 of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, in respect of investments in Cape Verde. This was accepted.

Cumbrae resident Peter Aspden offered a plea of Making a False and Misleading Statement as to Services, Contrary to section 14 of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 in respect of Cape Verde only. This was accepted. The fraudulent trading offence in respect of Bulgaria was ordered to lie on the file.

The victims were ordinary people who wanted to buy a second home abroad. Some wanted to make a financial gain on their investment, others wanted to rent it out to others and some simply wanted to fulfil their dream of buying a holiday home abroad.

Some of the victims invested their life savings with the company and others re-mortgaged their own homes to raise the money to pay for their investments.

The investors lost varying amounts of money of between €23,000 (approximately £18,000) and €140,000 (approximately £110,000) which ranged from reservation payments to second stage payments and, in some cases, the sale of furniture packs.

The victims were told their payments would fund the build of the property they were investing in. However, the brothers removed excessive amounts of money from their client account for themselves. Their clients were then mislead and deceived about what IPC had done with their money.

The customers believed they had invested in properties at three sites on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria, four separate developments in Bansko, Bulgaria and one development in Santa Maria in Cape Verde Islands.

However, the brothers used their clients’ cash to repay business and personal bank overdrafts, travel, personal shopping and also transferred money to other family members.

When investors became concerned about the lack of progress on their properties, they were fobbed off with excuses from the brothers who falsely reassured them that work was progressing to plan, or that the delay was the fault of the builders.

The investigation was one of North Yorkshire Police’s longest fraud investigations and began in 2009. Officers interviewed 112 people and produced over 580 documentary exhibits.

Detective Inspector Ian Wills, who is Head of North Yorkshire Police’s Financial Investigation Unit, said: “Paul Aspden was IPC’s sales director and Peter Aspden was IPC’s finance director.

“The company may have started out with the best of intentions, but from the moment their clients’ money started to arrive in their Bulgarian client account, things started to go wrong.

“Excessive amounts were removed and used for purposes other than funding the build. As the timetable approached for completion, clients were told a succession of lies as to why they could not complete, including the poor quality of the build - which was not the case.

“It is perhaps noteworthy that relatives and friends of the Aspdens did indeed complete on their purchases. But the victims in this case have had their dreams shattered, and in many cases faced severe financial hardship as a result of these crimes.” The brothers were disqualified from being Company Directors for eleven years each, from April 2013 until April 2024. This followed action brought by the Insolvency Service in March 2013, arising from their investigation into the activities of IPC.

IPC operated from offices in Scarborough and Blackpool.