A former double-glazing salesman dubbed a “Walter Mitty character” who tricked more than 8,000 people into investing in luxury Caribbean holiday resorts in a £226million Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
David Ames, 70, enriched himself and his family by £6.1million and paid his wife and son £10,000 a month while thousands of victims lost their pensions and life savings.
He persuaded more than 8,000 people to invest in a network of companies from his Harlequin group, promising them stakes in luxury hotels and resorts run by celebrities and politicians including the Prime Ministers of Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the USA, Grenadines had been supported.
However, only one of the lots actually existed as Ames shored up his business by attracting more and more investors.
In total, investors lost £226m between 2010 and 2015.
Judge Christopher Hehir sentenced Ames to 12 years in prison, telling him, “You are a threat to anyone unfortunate enough to do business with you.”
He agreed with a previous High Court judge’s assessment of Ames as a “Walter Mitty figure” who falsely poses as a “visionary”.
“You were a skillful and plausible salesman, and grossly dishonest at the same time,” the judge said.
“They ran a gigantic Ponzi scheme. The only way to keep this whole sad enterprise going, and the millions you and your family made from it, was to attract new investors who you knew would lose all, or almost all, of what they invested.”
The judge said Ames surrounded himself with advisors who agreed with his plans and deserted those who pointed out the flaws in his business efforts.
“They were clearly more interested in raking in investors’ money than making sure these people got what they paid for,” he added.
Southwark Crown Court heard Ames used money to pay for advertising campaigns involving Wimbledon winner Pat Cash, former Chelsea star Andy Townsend and TV real estate guru Phil Spencer during a proposed golf course resort in St Lucia by the South African Sports legend Gary Player was endorsed.
One of the victims, 73-year-old Anthony Priddle, was mortgage-free and about to retire when he was tricked into Ames’ scheme and convinced to invest almost £140,000.
The court heard he and his wife cannot leave any money for their children and grandchildren while Mr Priddle has suffered a deterioration in his health.
Richard Alan Jacob, 58, used his pension to invest £96,000 in one of Ames’ resorts and has lost everything in what he described as a “financial disaster”.
Erica Brougton, 59, said the fallout from her investment caused the downfall of her business, forced her to move home, caused anxiety and panic attacks and caused a feud with her sister, who no longer speaks to her.
The judge accepted that Ames, a former patio furniture and double-glazing salesman, did not enter the vacation home business to defraud his customers.
But thanks largely to its “disastrous” business model, it had failed to obtain outside financing and has now been declared bankrupt three times.
Ames denied two counts of abuse of office fraud in court, blaming his business advisers for the losses. He was found guilty by a jury.
Lisa Osofsky, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, said: “David Ames committed fraud on a large scale and knowingly exposed hundreds of millions of pounds in losses to thousands of UK investors.
“Meticulous SFO investigators reviewed millions of documents, traced over 8,000 deposits from investors and called more than 25 witnesses to uncover the full extent of Ames’ deception.”