Six directors have been banned after a £13m land banking scam.

Three were directors of firms acting as sales agents, and three were directors of the land-sourcing firms.

Altogether 300 investors were fleeced after being sold plots for up to £20,000 apiece in the belief that the land would get planning permission and rise in value. The supply companies had bought the land for as little as £180 per plot.

The Insolvency Service said the agents used misleading marketing materials, and that in reality there was no chance of the land ever getting consent for development.

Century Property Group took £12m from customers, and its director Stephen Wheeler has been disqualified from managing or controlling a company for 14 years.

Dakota Partners took £1.2m from buyers. Its directors Christopher Gill and Imran Rasool have been banned for 14 and 11 years each.

The supplying companies were Raincode and MRT Land Holdings and its successor Boldcare.

Boldare and Raincode director Carl Ballard and MRT and Boldare director Mark Tull have each been banned for 14 years, and MRT director Michael Tull has been banned for seven.

Matthew Stone, of the Insolvency Service public interest unit, said: “In over seven years of investigating land banking scams, I have not seen a single piece of land that has been sold go on to obtain planning permission.

“Every single customer has lost their money in what was a horrendous investment.”