Two brothers have been convicted after taking £750k from a failed investment firm.

Andrew Currie, 57, from Rufford and Peter Currie, 59, from Thornton-Cleveleys, appeared at Southwark Crown Court last month for a five-week trial, charged with two counts of fraud and one count of possessing criminal proceeds.

The brothers were directors of Collateral UK, which linked ordinary investors with people wishing to borrow money secured against property or jewellery, until it went into administration on February 28 2018.

Following the trial, Peter Currie was convicted on Monday by unanimous verdicts of two counts of fraud and one of money laundering and Andrew Currie was convicted of one count of fraud and one of money laundering.

Andrew Currie was acquitted of one count of fraud.

Before its collapse into administration in February 2018, Collateral offered peer-to-peer style investments on a website fraudulently claiming it was authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In December 2015 Peter Currie, a Collateral director, swapped the details of a separate company he had agreed to sell - Regal Pawnbrokers Ltd - for the details of Collateral on the FCA register.

Over the following 18 months, the company was advertised as authorised to persuade people to invest in loans on the Collateral platform. 

In January 2018 the FCA notified Peter Currie that they had uncovered the register change and ordered that Collateral cease unauthorised business.

After this, Collateral not only continued to receive investments, but Peter and Andrew Currie also removed approximately £750,000 from the Collateral client accounts.

At around the same time the Curries appointed, without informing the FCA as required, an administrator and transferred a further £88,000 from Collateral funds.

The integrity of the FCA Register is vital to consumer protection.

A spokesperson for the FCA said: “The falsification of the official record by Peter Currie enabled Collateral to masquerade as an authorised firm to defraud consumers, and the jury has quite rightly concluded this conduct was criminal.

“The FCA has invested heavily in the Register to strengthen controls and make it easier for people to use, with more information available to consumers.”

Both men will be sentenced on July 7.