FIVE men from Scotland have been jailed over a £17 million solar panel sales fraud.

Lisa Osofsky of the Serious Fraud Office described the six perpetrators, including one Englishman, as “predatory”.

They told 1500 elderly, retired and vulnerable victims that money from panel installations would be invested to deliver returns, but this was not true and the gang instead used money for cars and holidays.

Their Manchester-based Solar Energy Savings Ltd is no longer trading and sentences were passed at Liverpool Crown Court following a fraud trial.

They include Ludovic Black, 38, his 34-year-old brother David Diaz, Kenneth John Reid, 60, and Niall Hastie, 53.

The Glasgow four were sentenced along with Robert Orr Ross, 52, of Ayr, and 56-year-old Stephen Wilson of Cheshire.