As Britain sinks deeper into recession, public anger toward bankers and traders in the country is spiraling into violence.

Fred Goodwin, former chief of the beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland, was the first high-profile banker to be directly attacked by furious investors.

Goodwin's house and car were vandalized on Wednesday by a group of people furious at him for taking a massive pension while leaving many ordinary shareholders and savers with huge losses.

Property under attack

Goodwin had led the Royal Bank of Scotland in its rise to global prominence as one of the world's largest banking companies. But he became notorious following the bank's collapse and subsequent nationalization in 2008.

Resigning his position and taking early retirement, Goodwin accepted a massive annual pension of 700,000 pounds (about US$1 million), which has incurred widespread criticism from the public, the media and political circles.

"We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless," the attackers said in an e-mail to the media.

"This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning," it said.

Traders targeted

Goodwin is not the only target of disgruntled investors left out in the cold. Rogue traders have also been subjected to attacks.

In a quiet London suburb, the house of a former trader, 60-year-old Terry Freeman, was daubed with graffiti and splashed with paint following his arrest in February for being involved in a suspected fraud trade involving 40 million pounds (some US$58 million).

Police said their economic crime department had begun an investigation into GFX Capital Markets Ltd., a licensed, but separate, affiliate firm of the Swiss-based GFX Capital.

The Swiss firm granted clients like Freeman limited power of attorney, enabling them to act as effective "money managers" and solicit their own clients to trade on the GFX platform.

Despite his claim of innocence, Freeman has been the target of verbal abuse in online forums, and was said to be living in fear according to police.

In a letter to his clients, Freeman talked about how he had been continually labeled and slandered. "My life and those of my family have been threatened continually, to the extent that I am effectively being forced to live a hand to mouth existence, under constant and real threat, unable to return to our home address," he said.

There is also anger toward the Financial Services Authority (FSA) which allowed Freeman to trade despite his ban from operating as a director of a company.