A BUSINESSMAN behind an unlawful money circulation scheme which lost thousands of pounds has been banned from being a company director for 11 years after the project was branded a swindle.

Robert Fitzpatrick, who lives with his wife Michelle and three children in Burnley Road, Accrington, was disqualified following a hearing in the Companies Court at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Mr Fitzpatrick, 29, was disqualified alongside Gerald Littlehales from Stoke-on-Trent for running an unlawful lottery described as similar to the Titan pyramid scheme first exposed by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph which roped in scores of East Lancashire investors in the mid 1990s.

The Department of Trade and Industry's Insolvency Service said the orders were made in respect of their conduct as directors of Guardearly Ltd, which was found to "operate an unlawful lottery and a money circulation scheme that was dishonest and a swindle on the public."

Other matters of unfit conduct described by the agency included failing to maintain adequate accounting records and falsifying the company's records by signing receipts of payments allegedly not received.

But Mr Fitzpatrick today defended the Freedom International scheme set up under Guardearly and said people were prejudiced against him because of his involvement with Titan, which was ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal in 1996. He went on: "Titan has done a lot of damage. I took the idea but adapted it for Freedom International. Freedom included a product. People got tapes and went to training seminars which were costly to put on.

"If our legal representatives did not think we complied with the law I would not have spent £50,000 fighting this action in court."

Mr Fitzpatrick, an upholsterer by trade, was among thousands of people across the UK who became involved in the Titan scheme where investors paid up to £3,000 to join and were promised money for introducing family and friends.

But the scheme, closed down as an unlawful lottery by the High Court in 1996, was criticised by trading standards bosses and cost some investors thousands of pounds.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: "I was a member of Titan like anyone else. It's just I got promoted to become one of the people running the meetings. "I made some money, but a lot of people did make a lot of money.

"Some people who earned £10,000 a year made ten years' salary from the scheme."

Mr Fitzpatrick said only about 100 people paid to join Freedom International and that the company was the subject of a winding-up order in April, 1997, with losses of more than £30,000.

He went on: "I personally lost £80,000 in the Freedom affair - £30,000 on the set up and £50,000 in the court case.

"To be disqualified for 11 years just goes to show how much prejudice goes back to Titan.

"And at the end of the day people knew exactly what they were doing.

"If they want to go into a bookies and blow £2,500 on a bet they can. It is up to them. You decide."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.