IT IS easy with the benefit of hindsight and for people looking from the outside in, to say that the 10,000 people who lost money to the Give and Take pyramid scheme were gullible.

But more often than not with these schemes it was friends and family, or people who were trusted who were encouraging people to join.

That is because they themselves were recruited in the same way.

Further, the women who masterminded this £21m get rich quick scheme used a sophisticated mix of direct e-mail marketing and champagne celebration parties to convince people that they could not lose.

It seemed an enticing offer.

So in our view it is perfectly understandable that people got involved, despite the warnings of some others at the time that the scheme looked too good to be true.

Pyramid selling was not unheard of decades ago, in fact during the 70s and 80s there were significant instances of such scams right across the country.

It is quite right that they have been outlawed.

And we welcome yesterday’s successful prosecution of the women behind this particular scheme which spread out from Bath and Bristol to Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and beyond.

At least in that respect justice has been done. It has taken a long time to get to this point.

But of course for the 10,000 people who lost money, they will never get it back.