Elderly hit by 'quick profit' scam

20 January 2009 03:49pm

Hundreds of mainly elderly investors were left £4 million the poorer by a fraud gang's "quick profit" promises, a court heard.

In almost every case they fell victim to "high pressure" phone selling techniques, littered with "real, real whoppers" that promised them large returns on their savings, it was claimed.

In reality the company they were buying into was unlikely to make any money at all, let alone the profits being offered, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.

When the truth finally emerged victims found not only was the firm's plush Pall Mall address merely a rented mailbox, but the enterprise was in fact run from a bedroom in Watford, said Anthony Orchard, prosecuting.

In the dock are Nicholas Ailey , 32, from north-west London; Frazer Bettie, 34, who lived in Buckinghamshire, and Niven Gunaratnam, 31, from Hertfordshire.

All three deny one count of conspiracy to defraud investors between Jan 1, 2005, and Jan 28, 2006.

In addition Gunaratnam pleads not guilty an offence of "acquisition, use and possession" of £4,083,000 criminal property between February 15-18, 2006, while his co-defendants deny a slightly different charge alleging only the "acquisition and use" of criminal property - £802,413 and £229,295 respectively - between April 3 and December 20, 2005.

Opening the eight-week trial, Mr Orchard said Gunaratnam was the founder of Netjet, a burgeoning British company with plans to buy an internet innovation from an Italian business called Payweb that claimed to offer safe internet money transfers.

He claimed there was evidence nearly a third of the four million pounds taken from investors had been sent to the company and its three Italian directors.

The trial continues.

© The Press Association