The director of UK CBD brand Virtutum Limited, which traded as CBD Asylum in Hull, has been given a suspended prison sentence for fraud and money laundering.
Alex Hope, 41, and his co-director Liam Jones, 42, both pleaded guilty to fraud at Hull Crown Court in June 2026. Hope was separately convicted of money laundering, having channelled the proceeds of two fraudulent loans through a string of bank accounts to help buy a property in the Canary Islands.
Hope was a director of Virtutum when the company secured a £56,000 loan from a private lender in 2021. He had earlier, as sole director of the management consultancy A Hope Ltd, fraudulently obtained a £25,000 government-backed Bounce Back Loan in August 2020, declaring a turnover of £100,000 when the company’s accounts showed less than £13,000.
Funds from both loans were laundered through a number of accounts before forming part of a €245,825 payment for a two-storey, semi-detached house in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, bought in the names of Hope and his wife, according to the Insolvency Service.
