No charges brought as £140m Signature Group fraud case concludes

The Serious Fraud Office said there was no realistic prospect of conviction following an investigation into the Liverpool property developer, which went bust owing more than £100m to creditors.

The SFO launched a probe into Lawrence Kenwright’s Signature Living in early 2024, raiding three properties and making four arrests across Merseyside and Greater Manchester, to find evidence of fraud.

However, after more than two years investigating Signature, the SFO has dropped the case.

An SFO statement said: “Following a thorough review, we have concluded that the evidence in this prosecution no longer satisfies the Full Code Test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors in that there is no realistic prospect of conviction.

“This decision reflects our commitment to making timely judgements about where to focus our resources.  This concludes the SFO’s investigation into Signature Group.”

Kenwright was the chief executive of Signature, a property group that sought to develop a series of apartments, offices, and hotels with a focus on historic buildings across the UK. 

Kenwright and his wife, Katie Kenwright, declared bankruptcy in January 2024 after many of the group’s subsidiaries fell into administration with losses of up to £140m, leaving investors out of pocket.

Signature Group’s development activity focused on refurbishing historic buildings, including the former post office building in Preston, Millennium House in Liverpool, and the grade two-listed Victoria Mill in Miles Platting.

Outside the North West, projects included the Coal Exchange in Cardiff and the Scottish Mutual Building in Belfast. In 2020, the first six companies of Signature Group collapsed, with four more going under in 2022.

Signature’s projects had been funded by more than a thousand international and national investors who either loaned the company money or purchased a unit outright. These investors were promised returns of between 8% and 15%, according to the SFO.