A former HGV driver who claimed to be able to buy one of the country’s most famous hotels for £200m was today sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Anthony Lee, 49, of Beal, East Yorkshire, was convicted of obtaining payment by deception earlier this month.
At the trial Southwark Crown Court heard that Lee had conducted a “simple but well-targeted and ambitious scam” to dupe an investor into paying £1m on the promise of being able to buy the Ritz hotel in London.
The prosecution had claimed that in July 2006 Lee, Dolan and a third man, solicitor Conn Farrell, conspired to falsely suggest that they could buy the landmark 132-bedroom hotel for £200m if businessman Terry Collins paid a £1m non-refundable deposit.
Lee convinced Collins that he was a “close friend and associate” of the billionaire Barclay brothers, who own the Ritz, and claimed the brothers would sell it to Collins’ firm, London Allied.
Farrell, 57, who was accused of lending a “veneer of legitimacy” to the scam, was cleared of conspiracy after he told the jury that he was merely acting on the instructions of his clients.
Lee, and retired contracts manager Patrick Dolan, 68, were both found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
Making a plea in mitigation on behalf of Lee this morning, barrister Nicholas Johnson told the court that Lee had been under “exceptional financial pressure” at the time of the fraud and had obtained the £1m payment as revenge against Collins whom he blamed for depriving him of an earlier potentially lucrative property deal.
Johnson told the court that Lee suffered from diabetes and a progressive kidney disease and that he was the primary carer for his partner of 12 years who has recently gone into remission from cancer.
Referring to a pre-sentence report prepared on Lee, Johnson told the court that Lee presented a low risk of reoffending.
After sentencing Lee to five years imprisonment for the “elaborate and outrageous” scam HH Judge Robbins said that Detective Sergeant Gary Riddler who led the two-year fraud investigation should receive a judicial commendation.
The details of the alleged fraud first emerged in the High Court in September 2007, when Collins was given leave to reclaim the cash from Lee and Dolan – Collins has since recovered up to £350,000 from the two men.
christian.metcalfe@estatesgazette.com
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