A British expat's dream of a sun-soaked retirement on Spain's Costa Blanca has turned to hell as he now cleans holiday villas to make ends meet. Alan Brozel, who took early retirement at 50, along with his wife Paulene, moved from Barnet in North London to Gata de Gorgos in search of a peaceful life.

Devastatingly, Alan's hard-earned pension pot vanished after he entrusted it to a firm, Continental Wealth Management, which later collapsed. He said: "This was my whole pension, the whole lot, I'd only worked for a couple of companies, and they had invested wisely so the pot was substantial."

Alan had asked the company to manage his funds, yet claims they engaged in "forging our signatures to invest in high risk". While initial returns appeared promising, they soon started to diminish and became sporadic.

Alan said: "The idea was we would all give up work and have numerous holidays around the world and the investment money would help cover that."

Today, aged 74, Alan scrapes by on a £600 state pension, with added income from menial jobs. "Now I'm 74, and I'm still working cleaning villas and looking after dogs in our house," reports Bristol Live.

Both Alan and his wife Paulene continue to work without respite.

Any hope of reclaiming their lost investments seems bleak, especially following last month's conviction of Jody Smart, a former director at CWM, on charges of fraud.

Before the trial kick-started, CWM's company secretary Alan Gorringe passed away.

Alan spared no words as he railed against Smart, labelling her "an absolute con artist," a sentiment rooted in the bitter experience of losing his entire life savings to CWM. He even ruefully reflected on having referred his friends to the company, naively charmed by their persuasive sales rhetoric.

Numerous victims, mostly British expats, were enticed to invest their funds with CWM. One retiree, who asked to stay unnamed, relayed to the Olive Press the devastating loss of €210,000 from an initial investment of €470,000, given his preference for 'low to medium risk' options had been clear.

Recounting the advice given to him, he said, "I was asked, 'Can you sign this blank form. We will fill in the details.' I did that trusting they would act in my best interests."

Yet, despite his trust, he felt let down: "They should have been looking out for me and they were just feathering their own nests. To me they knew what they were doing."