Liam Jones
Introduction
Liam Jones is a businessman from Holton-le-Clay, Lincolnshire, who was a director of Virtutum Limited, a company that traded as the cannabidiol (CBD) brand CBD Asylum in Hull. In July 2026 he was sentenced at Hull Crown Court to 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after being convicted of one count of fraud in relation to a £56,000 loan the company obtained from a private lender in 2021. Jones and his co-director had signed the loan agreement giving personal guarantees that no litigation was taking place against them — a statement that was untrue for both men. He admitted it, pleading guilty on the day his trial began.
Background Information
Virtutum Limited (company number 10982123) was set up in September 2017 with Alex Hope as its sole director; Jones joined as the company’s second director in October 2019. The company traded as CBD Asylum in Hull, and the pair said they wanted their products to allow “the benefits of CBD to be experienced through many different walks of life.”
Hope, whose own case is covered on his page, was also the sole director of management consultancy A Hope Ltd, incorporated in August 2012. In August 2020 he fraudulently applied for a £25,000 Covid-era Bounce Back Loan by declaring a turnover of £100,000 when the company’s accounts showed less than £13,000. Funds from both that loan and the Virtutum loan were laundered through a number of accounts before being used to help purchase a property in Lanzarote for Hope and his wife. Both men were declared bankrupt in March 2022.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted of one count of fraud; pleaded guilty on the day of trial. Jones and co-director Alex Hope signed the £56,000 loan agreement for Virtutum Limited giving personal guarantees that no litigation was taking place against them. In reality, both had been pursued by a specialist litigation firm for around £800,000 since 2019.
Virtutum secured the £56,000 loan from a private lender in 2021. The guarantees the pair signed declared that no litigation was outstanding against them; the Insolvency Service’s case was that this was false, as both men had been facing the litigation firm’s pursuit since 2019. Mark Stephens, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Hope and Jones “lied about a legal case against them to fraudulently secure that second loan”. Both defendants pleaded guilty on the day of their trial at Hull Crown Court in June 2026 and were sentenced on Monday 27 July.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Jones, then 42, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. He was also disqualified as a company director for two years and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Stephens said the Insolvency Service “remains committed to holding those who exploit loan schemes and financial systems for personal gain to account”.
The court dealt with his co-director more harshly: 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, and received three years in prison suspended for three years, an eight-year director disqualification and 250 hours of unpaid work. Jones’s criminal liability covered the single fraud count tied to the £56,000 Virtutum loan; the money laundering and bankruptcy offences were Hope’s alone.
Current Status
Jones is subject to a two-year director disqualification; the release notes that individuals subject to a disqualification order or undertaking are bound by a range of restrictions. The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The laundered loan funds formed part of a €245,825 payment for a two-storey, semi-detached house in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, purchased in the names of Hope and his wife, and Jones has been bankrupt since March 2022.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The conviction and sentence followed Jones’s bankruptcy in March 2022 and closed out his formal role at Virtutum, the CBD business he had joined as a director in 2019. He is barred from acting as a company director for two years, must complete 100 hours of unpaid work, and remains liable to have the 10-month prison term activated if he breaches the 18-month suspension. The fraud conviction also stands on the public record through the Insolvency Service’s proceedings, alongside the continuing effort to recover the loan funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Sources
- Insolvency Service (GOV.UK), “CBD boss sentenced for fraud and money laundering after using funds to buy Lanzarote property” — source