Steven Knight: From Industry Guardian to Bankrupt

Steven Knight, once a self-styled guardian of Gibraltar’s pension sector and the founder of Castle Trust & Management Services (CTMS), is now bankrupt.

For years, CTMS served as security trustee for mini-bond schemes and QROPS pension transfers. Many of which collapsed, leaving investors nursing heavy losses.

Despite collecting trustee fees, CTMS consistently failed to act when defaults occurred. Knight’s offshore network, Gibraltar’s light-touch regulation, and his ties to loan note schemes later exposed as high-risk, paint a stark picture. The man who once positioned himself as the industry’s referee, has ultimately appeared to step over the line and play for the other side.

From Reformer to Receiver

In 2012, as Chairman of the Gibraltar Association of Pension Fund Administrators (GAPFA), Steven Knight launched a Code of Practice for QROPS providers, backed by government ministers. The stated aim was clear: raise standards, shut out rogue operators, and turn Gibraltar into a beacon of pension integrity.

For a time, it seemed to work. Pension transfers into Gibraltar surged.  Knight claimed “Gibraltar is gaining traction, with substantial amounts being received within QROPS” and confidently predicted many more. Perhaps he had privileged access to the numbers. Or perhaps he simply had every incentive to talk them up.  But as cracks in the system began to show, the much-celebrated Code of Conduct didn’t evolve or tighten. It simply disappeared.

AWM Financial Solutions Limited: The High Street Connection

AWM Financial Solutions Limited worked hand in glove with The High Street Group Contact Centre Limited. The model was simple enough: persuade pensioners to transfer their retirement savings offshore, package it as “wealth planning,”. Then, funnel the money into a QROPS overseen by Castle Trust & Management Services (CTMS). From there, the funds would circle back into High Street GRP’s fantasy-land loan notes. With CTMS simultaneously posing as the security trustee.

By 2016, the cracks were visible. The Financial Conduct Authority had begun receiving complaints, and the Financial Ombudsman was finding evidence of unsuitable advice. Still, AWM’s director, Tony Morrin, remained active in High Street–linked companies, quoted in a 2019 press release with the job title of “Head of Investment Sales” after his own bankruptcy in 2017. A display of career resilience, perhaps, though hardly the sort to reassure loan note holders.

And when High Street GRP inevitably began to default, CTMS’s much-touted role as “security trustee” turned out to be more ceremonial than real.

Spellsteal Limited: The BVI Mystery

In 2011, Castle Trust & Management Services (CTMS) incorporated a British Virgin Islands shell called Spellsteal Limited. No trading history or staff. No discernible purpose. Its director? First Management Limited, another Steven Knight–flavoured creation.

So, what exactly did Spellsteal do?

In 2013, it popped up as “the borrower” in a debenture agreement with The Resort Group PLC, where Knight just happened to be a director. Spellsteal had no products, no operations, just a name on paper, perfectly placed to receive funds.

The debenture itself was registered via The High Street Group Contact Centre Limited, one of Gary Forrest’s companies, (chairman of the High Street GRP Ltd) making this firm the “provider of security” for the deal.

Then the plot thickened. In 2014, Spellsteal reappeared in the Statement of Affairs for AWM Financial Solutions Limited as the largest creditor, supposedly owed £600,000. The address listed? Not the British Virgin Islands, but Cuthbert House in Newcastle, High Street Group’s administrative hub.

So, a BVI shell was owed money by a company whose role was to funnel pensions into High Street linked loan notes. With the paperwork pointing back to Forrest’s office.

By 2017, Spellsteal was struck off in the BVI for failing to pay fees. That should have been the end of the story. But in Knight’s world, “closed” companies had a habit of staying alive.

Fast forward to 2025:

The Gibraltar Supreme Court recently heard that another Knight-linked entity, Castle Trust and Management Services (Jersey) Limited, had continued issuing invoices and receiving payments long after it was dissolved on 1 October 2019. Hundreds of thousands of pounds flowed in between 2021 and 2022, all while the company legally no longer existed.

Documents approving these transactions were signed off by Knight himself, an accountant and managing director who certainly should have known better. The judge was blunt: Knight’s explanations were “without foundation.”

Why This Matters

• Castle Jersey legally ceased to exist in 2019.
• Payments continued into 2021 and 2022, totalling hundreds of thousands.
• Knight personally signed documents to keep the fiction alive.
• The court found his explanations baseless. The judge dismissed Knight’s attempts to argue otherwise, stressing that his explanations were “without foundation.”

This isn’t just sloppy governance. It’s a textbook example of how dissolved companies were kept running on paper, deceiving auditors, regulators, and, ultimately, creditors.

The Dooley & Ors Case

In the Court of Appeal, a group of UK pensioners set out their alleged claim: their retirement funds had been moved from regulated UK schemes into costly offshore QROPS operated by CTMS, only to be funnelled into unregulated collective investment schemes of little or no value.

At the centre of the pipeline was Montegue Smyth, an unregulated Cypriot intermediary with close links to Steven Knight. Smyth referred pensions into CTMS in exchange for commissions, a familiar pattern in this ecosystem.

The fallout was swift. Montegue Smyth was wound up in January 2023 on a petition by Insolvency & Law Limited, and its director, Graeme Boiardini, was personally made bankrupt by Insolvency & Law in May 2024.

The Court of Appeal was blunt in its assessment, calling the affair “a classic pension scam.”

As for the much-celebrated Code of Conduct Knight once championed? It was, tellingly, unavailable for comment.

£422,550,000 in Loan Notes

Between 2013 and 2023, Castle Trust & Management Services (CTMS) acted as security trustee for loan notes issued by a parade of companies: Ridgemere Developments Limited, Platinum Assets & Developments Limited, Genesis One Limited, Arimco Limited, the High Street Group companies, and The 79th Group companies.

The potential combined value of the loan notes CTMS was supposedly safeguarding in the event of default? A staggering £422,550,000.

For a firm of CTMS’s modest scale, the task was ambitious to the point of absurdity, like promising to guard Fort Knox with a single padlock.

Oversight from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission during this period of rapid expansion was, at least publicly, minimal. Moreover, investors were left to assume that “regulated in Gibraltar” meant “properly supervised.” The results suggest otherwise.

Platinum Assets & Developments: A Case Study in Inaction

After the High Street Group, perhaps the clearest example of Castle Trust & Management Services’ (CTMS) ineffectiveness lies in its role with Platinum Assets & Developments Limited, led by William Jackson and Tony Hughes, with Sonali Craddock also previously involved. Both Tony Hughes and Sonali Craddock had earlier connections to the High Street Group, and Sonali later appeared in The 79th Group.

CTMS was appointed as Security Trustee for the Platinum companies. Yet despite multiple warning signs, missed interest payments, delayed redemptions, and repeated complaints from Loan Note Holders, there is no evidence that CTMS enforced security, demanded accountability, or acted to safeguard investors’ rights.

According to reports from loan note holders, when maturities passed without repayment, they were met not with enforcement, but with silence or vague reassurances. CTMS, despite holding the position of trustee, took no visible steps to secure assets or recover funds on their behalf.

For many creditors, the Platinum case highlights the gap between the theory of protection promised on paper and the reality of inaction when defaults occur.

Charges, Demands, Business Network, Best Friends and Bankruptcy

Steven Knight’s fall from grace has been marked by criminal charges, statutory demands, and the collapse of once-close alliances.

In early 2025, Knight faced fraud charges in Gibraltar over the alleged misuse of a £50,000 investment. Which prosecutors claimed was diverted into personal expenses. He pleaded not guilty, and the charges were ultimately dropped.

On 8^th August 2025, The Supreme Court of Gibraltar dismissed Steven Knight’s application to set aside statutory demands from Castle Fund Administrators (CFA) and Castle Trust & Management Services Ltd (CTMS). This confirmed he owed £118,775 to CFA and at least £27,539 to CTMS. The Court rejected Knight’s reliance on set-off via related companies, ruling and further described the agreements underpinning Knight’s claims as “shams… devices to remunerate Mr Knight while avoiding… PAYE”, and concluded there was “no substantial dispute” and Knight had “no real prospect of success.”

His historic directorships included associations with figures involved in the Belvedere Management Group. Later dismantled as a global Ponzi operation, as well as connections to the failed Blackmore Bonds.

In addition, one of Knight’s closest allies was Paul Crowther. For years the two worked side by side. Particularly during Crowther’s high-profile divorce battle and bitter dispute over ship ownership in the UK High Courts. Moreover, multiple rulings and press reports placed Knight at the centre of efforts to shield Crowther’s assets.

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal later upheld freezing orders against Knight. They found there was a “good arguable case” he colluded with Crowther to conceal family wealth. Judges highlighted:

• “False demand letters” designed to create artificial creditor pressure
• Secret “offline” emails used to coordinate the scheme
• A suspicious ship deal: a £320,000 purchase resold for £2.95 million, raising “a suspicion that £2.95 million was a fictional purchase price”
• Exaggerated or invented debts, with “no evidence that Mr Knight ever sought payment”
• A risk of asset concealment and “a good arguable case that Mr Knight was engaged in tax evasion and spurious claims”

While these findings were not final determinations of fraud, the judgment paints a picture of sham structures, collusion, and professional enablers playing central roles.

Then came the final rupture. In 2025, Crowther, once Knight’s closest collaborator, turned on him and supported a bankruptcy petition. For two men who had worked hand-in-hand for years, it was a decisive split. Loyalty gave way to self-preservation.

On 8 July 2025, Knight was declared bankrupt by the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts of England and Wales (Case Ref: BR-2024-000194). The petition was filed by Preston Turnbull LLP, with the support of Paul Crowther. His estate is now in the hands of trustees Rob Starkins and Nick Nicholson of Grant Thornton UK.

From Chairman of GAPFA to a bankrupt under investigation, Knight’s trajectory is stark. A long drop for a man once held up as a guardian of pension integrity.

Owed Money by Steven Knight?

If you are owed money by Steven Knight, you may be able to prove your claim in his bankruptcy. Insolvency & Law can handle the process on your behalf to ensure your position is properly represented.

Want a Fact-Based Report?

If you’re a loan note holder or property purchaser caught up in a failed scheme or company collapse and want a clear, evidence-based report, not rumours or empty promises, Insolvency & Law can help.

Our reports are grounded in facts not speculation. We help you understand:

• What went wrong
• Who really owes what
• What assets may exist
• And your realistic options for recovery

 Get the facts and protect yourself today:

• Email: investigations@insolvencyandlaw.co.uk
• Phone: 020 7504 1300
• Web: www.insolvencyandlaw.co.uk

Disclaimer:
Logos are used for identification and commentary only. Insolvency & Law Ltd is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for any company named. We are not solicitors, licensed insolvency practitioners, or authorised to provide regulated services under the Legal Services Act 2007 or the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Content relating to Steven Knight, Castle Trust & Management Services Ltd, and associated companies is published free of charge for general information only and must not be relied upon as professional advice.