Solar Energy Savings Ltd

On 29 August 2018, David Diaz, Ludovic Black, Stephen Wilson, Robert Ross, Niall Hastie and Kenneth Reid were found guilty of running a £17m fraudulent scheme to install solar panels which defrauded 1,500 victims including elderly, retired and vulnerable people. Gary McVey was acquitted. 

The convicted men were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud by false representation. 

On 2 October 2018, the six convicted men were sentenced to a total of 30 years’ and 4 months’ imprisonment.

 The sentences were as follows:

• Ludovic Black: 7 years and 6 months for the fraud offence and a consecutive sentence of 2 months for a bail offence.
• David Diaz: 6 years and 6 months for the fraud offence and a consecutive sentence of 2 months for a bail offence.
• Stephen Wilson: 4 years and 6 months.
• Robert Ross: 4 years and 6 months.
• Niall Hastie: 3 years and 6 months.
• Kenneth Reid: 3 years and 6 months.

The SFO’s case was that the men devised a scam to sell and install solar energy panels which would enable their customers to generate extra income in addition to the Government’s Feed-In Tariff.

However, in reality they manipulated their victims by using deceitful sales techniques, outright lies, and false guarantees of reimbursement to misrepresent the offer and maximise their sales, which ultimately led to victims losing between £10,000 and £20,000 each.

On 27 November 2019, Stephen Wilson and Robert Ross were ordered to pay confiscation totalling £413,206.10. In January 2020, the SFO secured a confiscation order for Kenneth Reid and Niall Hastie totalling £434,835.73. The full amount of each confiscation will go towards compensating victims.

On 10 July 2020, Ludovic Black appealed against his conviction. In a judgment handed down on 17 July 2020, the appeal against conviction and the renewed application for permission to appeal against conviction were dismissed.