Scam: Vehicle transport specialists remove luxury cars from a ...

Star scam: Officers seized a �800,000 stable of eight luxury cars, including a Lamborghini, two Ferraris and several Bentleys

One victim, a 48-year-old woman from Welwyn Garden City, in Hertfordshire, said her family lost about �50,000 they had saved for the long-term care of her teenage son, who has cerebral palsy.

She said: 'We had been saving his disability payments for about 13 years, it was going to be a deposit for a flat or for an annexe to our house.

'The worst thing is the abuse of trust. We knew they were running around in Ferraris and living in big houses but we thought they were very successful consultants.'

A director of BCI, Kautilya Nandan Pruthi, 38, from Knightsbridge and financial consultants Kenneth Peacock, 40, and John Anderson, 43, both from Virginia Water, Surrey, have been arrested in connection with the alleged fraud.

They have been questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and fraud by misrepresentation.

Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart of the City of London fraud squad said: 'These victims have been totally hoodwinked. They have been befriended and groomed by the bad guys.

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'They think these people are friends and they have placed complete trust and given over a lot of personal information and it is very difficult to break that link of trust.

'Consequently we get this situation where we find they do not believe us. That is the power of the fraudster. Even though people have been arrested and we have searched their homes and offices and closed them down, the victims still do not believe anything is wrong.'

Bernard Madoff was jailed for 150 years last month for orchestrating a �39.5billion Ponzi scheme, the largest ever seen in the U.S.

He kept his fraud going for more than two decades with a remarkable-combination of showmanship, secrecy and cunning.

Many victims were persuaded that he ran an exclusive and successful club which was difficult to join. They were warned that if they asked too many questions they would be thrown out and lose the chance to cash in on his investment expertise.

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