An undercover investigation by an award-winning regional daily reporter has led to a conman being found guilty of fraud.

Jon Austin, from the Basildon Echo, exposed the activities of Matthew Ames, 38, who promoted bogus “ethical investments” and pursuaded people to part with sums totalling £1.2m.

Ames, of Goldfinch Lane, Thundersley, has been found guilty of two counts of fraudulent trading following a trial lasting nearly six weeks at Isleworth Crown Court.

The prosecution, which was brought by City of London Police, came after an undercover investigation by Jon exposed Ames’ suspect businesses.

Said Jon: “It’s amazing to really investigate something and then see the same issue analyised in a court of law. My story showed that Mr Ames’ companies were making outlandish claims about what they were selling – something that did not exist.

“The report we got from the Financial Services Authority under Freedom of Information showed that its investigators really took notice of the Echo report and what Mr Ames said during our interview with him.

“After he was charged it was up to the jury to decide if it amounted to fraud and according to them he was guilty.”

Jon, who is the paper’s special investigations reporter, received a tip off in spring 2010 that Ames was operating Forestry for Life as a Ponzi scheme.

He later posed as a prospective investor at the company offices, secretly recording a sales pitch of more than an hour.

He was told by an employee that the firm owned thousands of acres of rainforest land to generate the credits, and the scheme had been vetted by international carbon credit organisations.

The company also said that major supermarkets were buying credits from Forestry for Life.

But Jon, who has won the EDF Energy Daily Journalist of the Year award in his region six times, carried out hours of subsequent research by contacting the supermarkets and other organisations in question to expose the lies in the sales pitch.

In a showdown with the Echo, Ames later admitted to owning no land, but insisted he was close to a deal in Sri Lanka.

Jon’s work led to a four-page special investigation in the paper, published in August 2010, and his evidence was passed to the Financial Services Authority.

Investigators used their powers to get Ames to liquidate the companies and also referred the case, including the Echo’s evidence, to specialist fraud detectives at City of London Police.

Ames was arrested in late 2011 and charged with two counts of fraud in late 2012.

Speaking after the guilty verdicts Det Con Simon Cordell, who led the investigation, said Jon had seen the businesses “for what they were” before anyone else.

Ames is due to be sentenced next month.