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| Operation Wizard Casts Its Final Spell |
30-Jul-10
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| Herts fraud enquiry culminates in £1.4million Compensation Order to victims ... |
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Two men involved in a complex multi million pound fraud have been ordered to pay more than £380,000 to victims of the crime, taking the total amount of compensation to almost £1.4 million.
Nicholas Ailey and Niven Gunaratnam were told to pay £50,000 and £334,802.72 respectively following confiscation hearings at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday and Thursday (July 27 and 29). Ailey and Gunaratnam, who have already been convicted for their part in the crime and given prison sentences, will have to serve an extra 15 months and 3 years behind bars if they fail to pay the sum and would still owe the money once the default sentence had been served.
Ailey and Gunaratnam were both involved in a £4 million ‘Boiler Room’ scam, run from a bedroom of a house in Watford, and saw more than 320 people conned into buying worthless shares. Two other men, Fraser Bettie and Inaam Ul Haq have already been ordered to pay the victims compensation following confiscation hearings last year, £955,579.34 and £40,000 respectively.
The total amount, £1,380,382.06, will now be shared amongst the victims across the country. The money is the realistic amount that could be claimed from the offenders’ assets.
Detective Constable Jim Frost of Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Fraud Squad, said: “I am really pleased with this result which will see the victims of this despicable crime get money back to help rebuild their lives. This has been a complex and detailed investigation where we have scrutinised the offenders’ finances to claim compensation for the victims, and we were relentless in our work to ensure all the individuals responsible paid for their actions.
“It is really important that people don’t fall for scams such as this one. It’s very unlikely someone will try and sell you genuine shares over the telephone. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably really is. You can always check whether the company you are being offered shares in actually exists by logging on the Financial Services Authority’s website – www.fsa.gov.uk - or by calling their consumer helpline 0845 606 1234.”
Operation Wizard was launched by Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Fraud Squad following an anonymous call to Crimestoppers in late 2005. Following initial enquiries, officers discovered a ‘Boiler Room’ fraud was taking place, with connections across the UK, Spain and Italy. This type of fraud is where a company is based outside the UK, and is employed to promote the shares of another company, which are either worthless or of little value. The salespeople use high pressure tactics, often calling people several times a week in order to get them to buy shares.
In this case salesmen, working for DG Advisory, based in Barcelona, Spain, were promoting the shares of NetJet Ltd, a company operating in Hertfordshire. These salesmen would call potential investors from across the UK and offer them shares in NetJet Ltd. They were then told money spent on NetJet Ltd shares would then be invested in Payweb, a secure internet electronic money transfer scheme, based in Italy. This would eventually result in an excellent return for investors when the company floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and later lead to NetJet Ltd owning Payweb.
In reality, DG Advisory and NetJet Ltd were vehicles for fraud, set up purely to make money for its workers. NetJet Ltd was registered as operating from a prestigious Pall Mall address in London. However, it in fact was operated from a bedroom in Muriel Avenue, Watford. This was the home of Niven Gunaratnam, who was also the director of NetJet Ltd.
Payweb was a legitimate company but has since folded.
Between February 2005 and January 2006, Bettie, Ailey, Ul Haq, salesmen for DG Advisory in Spain, promoted shares in NetJet Ltd to 324 investors, mainly elderly people, to a value of £4 million. Despite claiming a vast amount of investors’ money would be invested in Payweb, only 20% in total was. 45 per cent of the £4 million was paid to the brokers of DG Advisory.
• Bettie, the owner of DG Advisory, received £802,000
• Ailey was a manager at DG Advisory and received around £240,000
• Ul Haq, a salesman for DG Advisory, received £97,000
Niven Gunaratnam spent the rest of the money on living a lavish lifestyle and when arrested was found to have spent some £230,000 in cash. He had also invested money in various businesses, including a comic book company.
Victims were from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Hertfordshire, victims were from Ware, St Albans, Welwyn and Codicote.
In total, thirteen people were arrested in connection with the investigation. However, some were later released without charge but helped the police and the Fraud Prosecution Service (FPS) form the case against the four defendants who were successfully convicted at Southwark Crown Court in March 2009. They were:
Frazer Bettie, now aged 35, formerly of Dunstable Road, Dagnall, was found guilty of Money Laundering and was sentenced to four and half years in prison.
Inaam Ul Haq, now aged 30, formerly of Byrd Road, Crawley, was sentenced to three and half years imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty to Money Laundering.
Niven Gunaratnam, now aged 32, formerly of Muriel Avenue, Watford was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to five and half years in prison.
Nicholas Ailey, now aged 33, formerly of Hazel Close, NW9, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Anyone who feels they have been a victim of a fraud or has information about a suspicious offer can call Action Fraud, the UK’s nation fraud reporting centre on 0300 123 20 40. Alternatively call Crimestoppers, an independent charity, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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For more information click on or go to http://www.herts.police.uk |
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