Agencies LONDON

Hundreds of people have been conned out of millions  of pounds after  “investing”  their life savings and pensions in a whisky barrel investment scam, a BBC investigation has found.

The victims include one woman with terminal cancer who invested £76,000 and another woman who spent more than £100,000 on  overpriced or non-existent casks. Some casks were sold multiple times to different investors, experts said.

Police are investigating three Scotch whisky companies for fraud, capitalizing on the market’s recent popularity due to reported high returns. Investors were deceived into buying young whisky, expecting its value to increase with age. While legitimate traders exist, a lack of regulation enabled fraudsters to exploit the market with misleading claims and fabrications.

The absence of a central authority to track cask ownership made verification difficult, leaving investors in legal disputes with assets worth far less than promised.

Alison Cocks, from Montrose, invested £103,000 in Cask Whisky Ltd., initially believing it was legitimate. Her investment portfolio appeared to grow on paper, with projected returns rising from 12% to 50%.

Encouraged by these returns, she invested further, buying three more casks for £100,000. Problems arose when she tried to sell, as the company became unresponsive. Her investigation revealed the casks were not in the designated warehouses and were significantly overvalued.

Independent valuers confirmed she paid five times the actual worth of her barrels. She located three of her four casks, but none were registered in her name, and one had been sold to another buyer. The most expensive cask, costing £49,500, did not exist. Like Cocks, many others face substantial financial losses.