A BARNSLEY MP has used her parliamentary privilege to name and shame an investment company she described as ‘disgraceful’ after a pensioner lost her life savings of £150,000.
Stephanie Peacock, MP for Barnsley East, has been acting on behalf of a woman in her 70s, who does not want to be named, because she has lost her life savings to an investment company called Plus Option Trading.
The MP said the company’s actions may not turn out to be illegal but she said they were ‘morally wrong’.
The company, which she named in the House of Commons where MPs can speak freely without fear of legal action, initially contacted the lady through an unsolicited phone call and encouraged her to invest in their trading company. She was convinced to do so, and invested an initial sum of £200.
“The constituent initially saw some return on this investment and she was encouraged to invest more, which she did,” said Stephanie.
“She then began to suffer a lot of losses but was told to invest more as this is how she would recoup the money.
“As this spiralled out of hand she cumulatively invested and lost her life savings of £150,000.”
Stephanie has been in touch with the company and was assured by a representative that this would be looked into and investigated.
She added: “After this conversation, they called her and suggested she should invest even more money.”
Stephanie has since written to the company four more times but is yet to receive a response even though she said she has has receipts of confirmation that the e-mails have been read.
The woman who has lost her life savings, has in this time, received a phone call from Plus Option which offered to pay her a bonus sum of 60,000 euros if she signed a disclaimer that she would not pursue any further action against them.
Stephanie said: “She has not accepted this as needless to say there are strings attached to this money where she cannot withdraw the money and it must be reinvested.”
On her online account it shows that she has 20,000 euros left, but she has alleged that Plus Option will not let her withdraw this money as it must be invested.
Plus Option has recently installed a ‘pop up’ message on its website that states: “Unfortunately we do not accept traders from the United Kingdom.”
Stephanie used her parliamentary privilege to name and shame the company, and asked for advice on how to pursue this further.
Speaking at the House of Commons, Stephanie said: “A constituent of mine was convinced to invest her life savings of £150,000 - all of it has gone.
“When she threatened action against the Plus Option Trading company, it simply offered her a bonus payment to invest even more.
“It has ignored three letters from me. Further to the Leader of the House’s answer to the hon Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess), may we have a government statement on, and an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority into, disgraceful companies such as that?”
Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, agreed that Stephanie had brought attention to a ‘very concerning case’ and encouraged her to write on behalf of her constituent directly to the FCA, which is independent of government.
She said: “I’m worried for this lady because I don’t know for definite if the company has legally done anything wrong but morally, targeting a vulnerable person who lives by herself is disgraceful.
“She has lost her car and had to re-mortgage her house, and she feels embarrassed and upset about what has happened. She cannot believe that this has all started from a cold call.
“I know a lot of people think that they wouldn’t be fooled by these sorts of things but they are very sophisticated. I’m hoping the more we shame them and the more pressure we put on them, we can give this lady even some of her money back.”
Despite several attempts to contact Plus Option, the firm not responded to the Chronicle.
