Investors recover over pounds 22m

MORE than pounds 22m has been paid out to 1,600 investors who took out home income schemes in the late 1980s, according to the Investors' Compensation Scheme, the industry's safety net for savers.

Nearly all the money has been paid out since last April, although it relates to some companies involved in such schemes that went bust in 1990/91.

Among the collapsed firms are Fisher Prew-Smith, in Preston, whose clients have received pounds 11.2m. Former clients of Aylesbury Associates have been paid pounds 5m, those of the Herts-based Acorn Insurance pounds 2m, and investors with Andrews-Green, in Essex, have been paid pounds 730,000 to date.

But an ICS spokesman said: 'More cases are coming through as investors, many of them elderly, realise what they were sold.'

Two firms involved in home income plans, Morgan Associates and Highcliffe Financial Services, were declared in default by the ICS last week, paving the way for compensation of at least pounds 2m to be paid to scores of investors.

The spokesman said: 'So far we have discovered 14 people eligible for compensation. Every time we ask new claimants if they know of anyone else who may have been affected, we find further names come out.'

Morgan Associates, of Worthing, West Sussex, and Highcliffe, of Lymington, Hampshire, advised clients to remortgage their homes and invest the money to enhance their income. Meanwhile, the amount owed continued to roll up.

A third company, Siltala Fund Managers, of Bishop's Stortford, Herts, has also been declared in default by the ICS.

Investors in all three firms should call the ICS on 071 628 8820.