Fake lord jailed
A UK professional gambler who posed as a lord was jailed for five years after defrauding almost 200 people in a fake cruise holiday scam.
victims would only discover they had been duped after arriving at ports and being denied entry
Richard Lester, 56, made £400,000 ($498,000) through a ponzi scheme in which he set up a company offering fake cruise miles to customers. Victims would only discover they had been duped after arriving at ports and being denied entry by cruise line operators.
Lester, a former stockbroker, used the money stolen from victims across the world to fund his online gambling habit and spend lavish amounts of money in Las Vegas.
High life
Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Lester “lived the high life” in Las Vegas and other locales with the cash he stole from customers.
Victims, who came from several countries including the USA, Canada and Japan, bought into “deliberately convoluted” terms and conditions by Lester, who typically posed as a lord along with several other pseudonyms.
It makes me so angry and depressed to know I made a stupid decision.”
One victim, Kim Berthen, from Australia, lost £6,600 ($8,266) for a planned anniversary voyage with her husband. “I stupidly invested in this company thinking of wonderful holidays together,” said Berthen. “It makes me so angry and depressed to know I made a stupid decision.”
Lester started the elaborate scam in 2009, and would run it for five years by promising bogus cruises leaving from UK ports in Essex. After receiving several reports to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, Essex police then began a ten-year investigation into Lester and his cruise company.
Lester’s lawyer, Tania Panagiotopoulou, boldly claimed that there had been “thousands of satisfied customers” before the operation turned to defrauding its customers.
Lester sentenced
However, the court was not convinced by the defense, with Judge Alexander Mills stating: “This was a well-planned and complex fraud carried out over a lengthy period of time and it was done knowingly and willingly on your part.”
Lester’s previous fraud convictions “had not mellowed him”
Mills also stated that Lester’s previous fraud convictions “had not mellowed him” and that he had continued to offend “in a bigger and bolder way”, referring to a previous 1989 conviction for 22 cases of dishonesty, which was not disclosed to the jury.
PC Leanne Smith, who had been part of the ten-year investigation, stated: “This has been a large and complex investigation, with officers gathering dozens of statements from victims.
“Securing justice for these victims meant scouring several bank accounts to trace exactly where their money has gone. All their money leads back to Lester. His greed left hundreds of people thousands of pounds out of pocket.”