WIREDGOV

Former Axiom Legal Financing Fund manager ordered to repay millions to investors. 

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has today secured a £928,479 confiscation order against David Kennedy, meaning this money will be returned to victims of his £100+ million fraud.

SFO investigators exposed that Kennedy, a convicted fraudster, used his criminal proceeds to fund a lifestyle that included the purchase of properties in Hull and a villa in Tenerife, savings in a Spanish bank account, a pension fund and several luxury vehicles.  

At a hearing at Southwark Crown Court, the judge agreed that this money should go back to victims.   

Kennedy is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for a fraud he ran with business partner Timothy Schools.  

The pair operated a no-win no-fee legal scheme, Axiom Legal Financing Fund, that used investor money to fund thousands of high-risk cases that were not independently vetted and often failed at court. The SFO successfully prosecuted him for fraudulent trading in June 2024.  

This result follows a successful £1,083,000 confiscation order secured by the SFO against Schools in January 2025. In addition, the SFO’s first ever unexplained wealth order recovered £1.1 million from Schools’ ex-wife, following the sale of a property in September. 

Kennedy has three months to pay the confiscation order or risk adding up to six and a half years to his sentence. 

Paul Napper, Head of the Proceeds of Crime, said:

David Kennedy funded a lavish lifestyle with other people’s life savings and many lost everything when his scheme collapsed.  

Today’s order is a significant step forward in addressing the impact of Kennedy’s crime on victims.