The victims of two property conmen included the father of one, who lost his own home to the scam.
Andrew Jelley, 37, and Joseph Nunn, 42, were yesterday jailed for six and a half years each. They had conned more than £3m out of 24 investors to whom they had promised returns of 10-15% a year. Most of the money – £2m – was then literally gambled away.
Investors, who often signed over their own homes in return for being allowed to live in them, were told that their money would be used to buy properties outright, which would then be let out.
In fact, many of the properties bought by the pair were remortgaged for massive amounts.
The first that many of the victims knew about their homes being remortgaged was when they were served with repossession notices. Seven investors lost their homes including Jelley’s own father. An eighth victim is on the brink of losing her home.
Trading under the name of AJ Corporate Services, with offices based at the Old Naval Club in Portsmouth, Jelley and Nunn were only too plausible.
This week, Portsmouth Crown Court was packed with many of the pair’s victims as prosecutor David Reid described the scam.
Jelley pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud relating to mortgage applications, and Nunn pleaded guilty to seven similar counts, all between February 2004 and April 2009 when the men were arrested.
Mr Reid said: “Money was frittered away and not used in legitimate ways.”
He said the scheme relied on a constant stream of new investment to keep paying the interest to existing investors. Once that stream dried up, it collapsed.
He added: “There was in every case a relationship of trust which the defendants breached. The majority of the investors were also close to retirement and they were therefore in a much more precarious position.”
Michael Cousens, counsel for Jelley, said his client had no idea of the extent of Nunn’s gambling and the amount of money being siphoned out of the company accounts. Nunn was responsible for £1.74m of the gambling losses, while Jelley was responsible for £280,000.
He also blamed the collapse of the housing market for many of the problems.
Jason Taylor, defending Nunn, said: “As you can hear, there’s no honour amongst thieves.”
Comments