Mark Bell
Friday, July 12, 2013
4:11 PM
A gang led by a timeshare conman and including a police fraud officer as well as two men from East Anglia has been jailed after defrauding 17,300 victims across the UK.
A gang led by a timeshare conman and including a police fraud officer as well as two men from East Anglia has been jailed after defrauding 17,300 victims across the UK.
The group, set up by Costa Del Sol-based linchpin Antoni Muldoon, ran an elaborate network of bogus companies, duping people into signing up for non-existent escort work or fake debt elimination schemes.
They profited to the tune of ?5.7 million, most of which funded Muldoon?s luxury lifestyle in Spain.
The 66-year-old recruited six others, including former West Yorkshire Police fraud specialist Detective Sergeant Christopher Taylor.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg told Ipswich Crown Court: ?This was consistent, professional criminal fraud perpetrated by a large number of companies and taking in a large number of victims.?
The court heard that the escort scam offered non-sexual work through a network of websites and adverts in red top newspapers.
After paying a registration fee of between ?250 and ?400, no work would materialise, the court heard.
Some 14,000 people were enticed to register, according to Suffolk County Council which investigated the scam.
The debt elimination scam took in 3,300 victims who were already ?financially vulnerable?.
They were cold called from Spanish call centres and falsely told credit agreements could be written off for an up front fee of between ?540 and ?2,000.
Muldoon, previously convicted in Spain for a ?highly organised? timeshare fraud targeting UK consumers between 2000 and 2001, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and money laundering at an earlier hearing.
Jailing him for seven years and five months, Judge Rupert Overbury said he was a ?thoroughly dishonest, manipulative and mean individual?.
He added: ?These were serious and complex frauds which deprived hardworking members of the public of their savings, in many cases increasing their already burdensome debts.
?Antoni Muldoon was the architect but each of you in your own way played vital roles without which these schemes could not have succeeded.?
The majority of the proceeds went to Muldoon with his accomplices receiving less depending on their place in the ?pecking order?, Mr Lobbenberg told the court.
The court heard he had lived a ?life of luxury?, spending the money on property, boats and other high value assets.
This included a 10-bedroom villa worth more than ?500,000.
?In one email he boasted about spending ?1 million in cash to buy a villa and a boat,? Mr Lobbenberg said.
Stephen Mather, mitigating for Muldoon, had called for leniency.
?His health is not good and your honour may well be sentencing him to the rest of his life in prison,? he said.
Mr Lobbenberg said Taylor, who had experience of international fraud cases, profited by about ?900,000.
Alex Dos Santos, mitigating, said Taylor had operated an otherwise legitimate debt recovery company and had allowed his bank accounts to be used in the fraud.
?There has been a great reputational fall and the significance of his former career as a police officer has meant the time he has spent in custody has been difficult for him,? he said.
The judge told him: ?As a former experienced and commended police officer you played no part in the conspiracies but were prepared to sacrifice you good name for one sole aim: money.?
Taylor, 57, from Wakefield, and Bradley Rogers, 29, from Malaga, were found guilty of money laundering but cleared of conspiracy to defraud following a 10-week trial.
Taylor was jailed for three years and six months while Rogers will serve two years and 10 months.
Mark Bell, 41, from Westerfield, near Ipswich, Colin Samuels, 62, of Redgrave, Suffolk, and Geraldine French, 60, from Spain, were each found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud.
Bell was sentenced to six years and six months, Samuels to five years and six months and French to six years and five months.
Jeffrey Owens, 64, of Colyford, Devon, had already admitted money laundering. He was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.
Sean Hammond, mitigating for Bell, said he was naive and had been left with debts despite his profit from the scam.
Samuels had been ?honest and hardworking? up to his involvement in the fraud, Alisdair Williamson said on his behalf.
Owen, a bankrupt former business owner, and Rogers were said to have played peripheral roles while French was described as an ?employee and administrator?.
Efforts will now be made to seize the gang?s assets through the courts.
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