The FSA has launched legal proceedings against six land-banking operations accused of duping investors into parting with £45m.
The FSA says that people were persuaded to buy plots of land that they were told had development potential, but which in reality would never have been given planning permission.
Examples included a site with no access, one on a 45-degree hill and another that was a site of special scientific interest.
Cases include action against James Kenneth Maynard and Countrywide Holdings; action against Stephen Watkins, trading under the name Consolidated Land; and action against Charles Newcombe and Elite Land Developments.
Jonathan Phelan, head of retail enforcement at the FSA, declined to comment on individual cases, but said: “Certain land banks are becoming more and more criminal in the way that they operate.”
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