A GET rich quick scheme outlawed by the High Court last week could leave hundreds of families in and around Lancaster and Morecambe penniless. Lancashire's Chief Trading Standards Officer Jim Potts said he knew of at least 200 families who had invested thousands of pounds in Titan Business Club, a pyramid selling scheme. And he warned that the only way many of them could recoup their lost investment would be to sue friends and neighbours who had introduced them to the club.

He said: "It may cause a lot of bad blood between families and workmates because the selling idea was to get close friends involved."

He explained that new recruits paid a sum of between £2,500 and £3,000 to join Titan then for each new member they recruited they could claim a percentage of the new member's fee.

"It was, in effect, a huge gamble," he revealed, "and there were many more losers than winners."

But former Lancaster City Councillor Paul Morris, a member of the club since January, disagrees. He told the Citizen: "If you talk to anybody involved in this I am sure they will tell you it's the most wonderful thing that has happened to them.

"My personal feelings are that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it and these people are just poking their noses in where they're not wanted. Certainly nobody was ever forced to join.

"This was the ideal opportunity for me to get somewhere in life and let me do the things I have always wanted to do. It was the best financial move I ever made."

Mr Morris and the rest of the Titan members must now wait for the outcome of a hearing into the company.

Applications have been issued against the German-based operation preventing them from holding further recruitment meetings or moving funds prior to the hearing to consider an application for a winding up petition by the DTI.

The leader of Lancashire County Council Louise Ellman said: "I am delighted this scheme has been stopped. It was a pyramid selling scam which was bound to fail."

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