A GET rich quick scheme which the High Court ruled amounted to an illegal lottery could leave scores of Preston families penniless.

Lancashire's Chief Trading Standards Officer Jim Potts said he knew of at least 50 local families who had invested thousands of pounds in Titan Business Club, a pyramid selling scheme.

And he warned that the only way many of them could recoup their lost investment would be to sue friends and neighbours who had introduced them to the club.

He said: "It may cause a lot of bad blood between families and workmates because the selling idea was to get close friends involved."

He explained that new recruits paid a sum of between £2,500 and £3,000 to join Titan then for each new member they recruited they could claim a percentage of the new member's fee. People who joined early on would make some money but everyone else would lose out.

"It was, in effect, a huge gamble," he revealed, "and there were many more winners than losers."

He added that organisers targeted small businesses, persuading them to invest their savings and said: "I can see many businesses going down the pan because of this."

Applications have been issued against the German based Titan Marketing operation preventing them from holding further recruitment meetings or moving funds prior to a hearing to consider an application for a winding up petition by the DTI.

The leader of Lancashire County Council Louise Ellman said: "I am delighted this scheme has been stopped. It was a pyramid selling scam which was bound to fail eventually."

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