The brothers spent the proceeds on a lavish lifestyle, including hiring a private jet for more than £150,000, a boat worth more than £50,000 and an exclusive timeshare costing £260,000. They also bought several expensive Patek Philippe and Rolex watches worth tens of thousands of pounds each.

Alan and Russell Taylor, from Norwich, abused the trust of mainly local clients for six years by targeting retirees, or those approaching retirement, to persuade them to invest in a high-risk scheme called the ‘Vantage Trader Fund’. They are listed for sentencing at Kings Lynn Crown Court this afternoon.

While running Taylor and Taylor Associates, the men would tell their victims the scheme was a safer investment than the savings they already had, but in reality it was high risk and left clients with a future of financial uncertainty. The FSCS has already paid out millions of pounds in compensation to clients.

The clients’ money was placed in ‘contracts for difference’ which were effectively bets on stock price movements.

The potential advantage was that large sums of money could be made with much smaller investments, the brothers claimed. However there could also be significant losses.

The Taylors owned the fund and were therefore making money from these investments but failed to pass this information on to their clients.

In total, about £17m was invested in the brothers’ ‘Vantage Fund’ between 2008 and 2015.

The brothers, who also claim to offer Financial Planning services on their LinkedIn page, were convicted on 6 March, after pleading guilty to a number of fraud offences, including conspiracy to defraud and fraud by abuse of position.

Sentencing guidelines indicate the pair could face up to 10 years in prison.

• Editor's note: Kings Lynn Crown Court has adjourned the sentencing until tomorrow morning.