Alex Hope
Introduction
Alex Hope is a company director from Halsham, East Yorkshire, who was convicted of fraud and money laundering after exploiting two business loans and laundering the proceeds through a series of bank accounts to help buy a property in Lanzarote. Hope, 41, was director of management consultancy A Hope Ltd when he fraudulently secured a £25,000 Bounce Back Loan in 2020 by inflating the company’s turnover, and a director of Virtutum Limited — a Hull company that traded as the CBD brand CBD Asylum — when it obtained a £56,000 loan from a private lender in 2021 on the back of false personal guarantees. His business partner and co-director at Virtutum, Liam Jones, 42, was convicted alongside him of one count of fraud. Both men pleaded guilty on the day of their trial at Hull Crown Court in June 2026; on Monday 27 July 2026 Hope was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, disqualified as a company director for eight years, and ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work.
Background Information
Hope was the sole director of A Hope Ltd, a management consultancy incorporated in August 2012 (company number 08193238). In September 2017 he set up Virtutum Limited (company number 10982123), again as its sole director; the company traded as CBD Asylum in Hull. Liam Jones joined as a second director in October 2019, and the pair said they wanted their products to allow “the benefits of CBD to be experienced through many different walks of life.” Jones, who was convicted of one count of fraud over the £56,000 loan and was sentenced at the same hearing, is covered separately on the Liam Jones page.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted of two counts of fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of failing to disclose the value of company shares while bankrupt. Hope admitted the loan frauds by pleading guilty on the day of his trial at Hull Crown Court in June 2026 and was sentenced on Monday 27 July 2026.
The first fraud came through the government’s pandemic loan scheme. In August 2020, Hope fraudulently applied for the £25,000 Bounce Back Loan for A Hope Ltd by declaring a turnover of £100,000, when the company’s accounts showed less than £13,000.
The second followed a year later. Virtutum Limited secured a £56,000 loan from a private lender in 2021, with Hope and Jones signing the loan agreement and giving personal guarantees that no litigation was taking place against them. In reality, both defendants had been pursued by a specialist litigation firm for around £800,000 since 2019.
Hope then moved funds from both loans through a series of accounts before transferring the money abroad. The funds formed part of a payment of €245,825 used to purchase a two-storey, semi-detached house in Puerto Calero, in the names of Hope and his wife.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Both defendants pleaded guilty on the day of their trial at Hull Crown Court in June 2026 and were sentenced on Monday 27 July 2026. Hope was convicted of two counts of fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of failing to disclose the value of company shares while bankrupt. He received three years in prison, suspended for three years, an eight-year director disqualification and 250 hours of unpaid work. Jones, convicted of one count of fraud over the £56,000 Virtutum loan, was sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for 18 months, disqualified for two years and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
Mark Stephens, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Alex Hope deliberately lied about his company’s turnover to secure a Covid loan meant to help businesses survive the pandemic. He then laundered the proceeds of both fraudulent loans through a string of bank accounts, using the money to help buy a property abroad.” He added that “Hope and Liam Jones also lied about a legal case against them to fraudulently secure that second loan.”
Current Status
Hope, of Halsham, East Yorkshire, is subject to the suspended sentence, the unpaid-work requirement and the eight-year disqualification imposed on 27 July 2026. Both he and Jones were declared bankrupt in March 2022; Hope then committed a further offence by failing to disclose the true value of his shares in Aspen Homes Hull Limited to the trustee in his bankruptcy — the conduct behind the fourth count on his record. The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and Stephens has said the Service “remains committed to holding those who exploit loan schemes and financial systems for personal gain to account.”
Impact on Their Career/Life
Hope built two companies across the better part of a decade — a management consultancy and a CBD brand — and now carries four criminal convictions arising from both. The consequences are layered: a criminal record for fraud, money laundering and a bankruptcy offence; a three-year prison term suspended for three years; 250 hours of unpaid work; and an eight-year ban from acting as a company director. The Lanzarote house his laundered funds helped buy — a two-storey, semi-detached property in Puerto Calero held in the names of Hope and his wife — remains tied to money the Insolvency Service is pursuing under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. His bankruptcy, rather than drawing a line under his affairs, produced a fourth conviction when he failed to tell his trustee the true value of his shares in Aspen Homes Hull Limited. Jones’s sentence — 10 months suspended, against Hope’s three years — was the lighter of the two, with Hope alone convicted of money laundering and the bankruptcy offence.
Sources
- The Insolvency Service, “CBD boss sentenced for fraud and money laundering after using funds to buy Lanzarote property” — source