Nexus IFA director and operations manager plead guilty to £2m client fraud

Kerry Nelson, director of Nexus Independent Financial Advisers Limited and Nexus Investment Managers Limited, and Jacqueline Stephens, the firms' business operations manager, pleaded guilty on 12 October 2026 at Portsmouth Crown Court to fraud charges brought by the FCA, according to the FCA press release. The regulator says both admitted all charges relating to the defrauding of four clients of £2m between January 2019 and January 2023, and to using false documents as part of the fraud.

The FCA says Nelson also admitted a money laundering offence after money was withdrawn from the firms, which she used to fund her lifestyle. Fraud by abuse of position is charged under sections 1 and 4 of the Fraud Act 2006, using a false instrument under section 3 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, and the money laundering offence under section 327(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Therese Chambers, the FCA's executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said the case was "a serious breach of trust" and that Nelson and Stephens "caused significant losses to clients who relied on them".

The FCA says Nelson and Stephens will be sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on 10 December 2026, and that it will seek confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to deprive Nelson of any financial benefit from her criminal conduct.

The FCA's notes state that criminal proceedings began in February 2025, that Nexus IFA and Nexus IM were FCA-authorised but not permitted to hold or control client money, that the FCA imposed restrictions on both firms on 25 January 2023 preventing regulated activity, and that the High Court placed both firms into administration on 26 January 2023. The press release does not say what sentence the FCA is seeking or the current status of the administration.