Woman, 60, arrested in £30m fraud
BBC News Channel / 18th August 2009
A 60-year-old woman from Cornwall has been arrested in connection with a nationwide fraud case worth about £30m

Officers from the City of London Police arrested the woman at her home in St Austell on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. Police said the woman was the ninth person questioned in connection with a so-called "boiler room" fraud. Boiler rooms are defined as share-selling operations based abroad and not authorised by financial regulators. 'Worthless' shares Officers from the City of London Police's Economic Crime Directorate arrested the woman as part of a joint investigation with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Devon and Cornwall Police said. The Financial Services Authority estimates up to 30,000 people a year are losing hundreds of millions of pounds to these share scams. It happens when criminals call potential investors attempting to sell shares which are effectively worthless, it said. The authority said it had been working with police officers from Operation Archway in London for several years to try to tackle boiler room fraud.