Six men have been jailed for more than 30 years after swindling 1,500 vulnerable customers out of millions of pounds through a home solar power panel scam.

Brothers David Diaz and Ludovic Black masterminded the racket, which tricked customers into installing solar panels with the promise they could earn extra income from renewable energy in addition to the Government’s solar subsidy tariffs.

The cashback scheme promised that their income would be reinvested by the company, Solar Energy Savings, and paid back at a later date.

Instead, the Glaswegian bothers defrauded their customers of an estimated £17m, triggering a four-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Insolvency Services.

According to reports they spent their customers' money on sports cars, plastic surgery and private flights to Switzerland.

The pair were caught earlier this year at a routine traffic police traffic stop in Cheshire, after 11 months on the run, and were sentenced on Tuesday to between six and seven years in prison.

Another four men within the syndicate of solar-scammers will face sentences of between three to five years in jail for their role in the fraud.

Lisa Osofsky, of the Serious Fraud Office, said the men built “predatory schemes” to steal a total of £17m from the “hard-earned savings of vulnerable people” by tricking them into believing that they could earn extra income from their panels on top of the Government’s solar subsidy tariffs.