Reality television show 'Geordie Shore' chaos as star is due in court and may be given two year prison sentence

Reality show ‘Geordie Shore’ has been thrown in to chaos as one of its stars is due in court next month - and could end up with a two year prison sentence.

Scott Timlin, aged 36, is set to make a return to the hit MTV show soon, after taking a break. He’s preparing to film the 25th series with the rest of the cast. They travelled to Thailand earlier this week, and are expected to spend three weeks abroad - but there’s now a big problem as he could soon find himself behind bars.

Timlin, who is known as Scotty T, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court next month after being charged in relation to promotions of unauthorised plugging of investments on social media. He was one of several reality TV stars and influencers to be handed the charge by by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), along with Love Islanders Rebecca Gormley, Eva Zapico, Biggs Chris and Jamie Clayton and ‘The Only Way is Essex’s’ Lauren Goodger and Yazmin Oukhellou.

The FCA had previously warned it would crack down on so-called "finfluencers" if it considered posts were misleading. If convicted, they could face up to two years imprisonment. It is the first prosecution brought by the FCA against influencers regarding alleged financial promotion breaches.

The FCA has alleged that Emmanuel Nwanze, aged 30, and Holly Thompson, age 33, ran an Instagram account under the handle @holly_fxtrends. The watchdog said it gave advice on buying and selling investments called contracts for difference, but without the required authorisation from the regulator to do so. The account has now been taken down.

The FCA said that contracts for difference were high-risk investments used to bet on the price of an asset, in this case foreign currencies. It said 80% of customers lost money when investing in CFDs because of the risks. Nwanze allegedly ran the foreign exchange trading scheme and issued unauthorised financial promotions. The watchdog claims that he paid social media influencers to promote @holly_fxtrends to their Instagram followers.

Nwanze, Thompson and the influencers they paid have all been charged with unauthorised communications of financial promotions. Nwanze also faces one count of breaching a so-called general prohibition under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which prohibits people from carrying out regulated activities in the UK unless they are authorised to do so.

Timlin is best known for starring in ‘Geordie Shore’ from 2012 to 2019 and the new series was supposed to mark his big comeback - but this has now been thrown in to question. He’s also appeared in other reality shows ‘Just Tattoo Of Us’ and ‘Ex On The Beach’. And in 2016, he also won ‘Celebrity Big Brother’.

The nine influencers charged in the case are set to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday, June 13. If convicted they face up to two years in prison.