Two-Year Hangover Begins For Champagne-Loving Swindler

The boss of a luxury car hire firm who swindled creditors and a retired gay couple in a £610,000 fraud to fund a lavish lifestyle in London and St Tropez has been locked-up for two years.

Iranian-born Koroush Pour, 33, of Glasswater Road, Crossgar, Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, tricked victims into believing he was a playboy member of the Kuwaiti royal family with an eight-figure trust fund.

Heartless Pour smooth-talked the retired nurses out of £150,000 – their life savings - and took almost half a million pounds from business creditors.

Pour was a regular on the international party scene, spending thousands of pounds on a night out even paying 10,000 euros on a bottle of champagne while on the town in St Tropez, France.

Southwark Crown Court heard Pour befriended the couple while on holiday and persuaded them to hand over their savings and pension pot with the promise of investing the cash in euros at a high exchange rate.

At the same time he was the director of Kensington-based Swift Hire Ltd. specialising in the sale of expensive cars to the very rich, including Bentleys and Lamborghinis – lending one to BBC’s Top Gear show.

In November 2008 financers became suspicious of Pour’s business dealings and alerted the City of London Police.

Following an eight-month investigation he handed himself in and was arrested.

The company accounts revealed he obtained money for vehicles he did not buy, sold vehicles on without clearing the finance and in some cases purchased vehicles by forging existing customers details without their knowledge.

Pour used his ill-gotten gains to fund a life-style well beyond his means and to convince partygoers he was something and somebody he was not.

Detective Inspector Perry Stokes from the City of London Police fraud sqaud, said: "While it lasted Koroush Pour enjoyed a champagne lifestyle funded by other people’s money.

“Now, however, the party is over and all that Pour has to look forward to is a prison sentence.

"This conviction sends out another warning to all those fraudsters who think they are too clever to be caught.

“The banks and the City of London Police are working together to crack their codes and bring fraudsters to justice.

“I would also urge anyone who is thinking of using a private investor to make detailed checks before handing money over.

“This is the best way to protect yourself against people like Pour.”

“It is a sophisticated fraud,” prosecutor Mr. Angus Bunyan told the court. “The company dealt in high-value cars and started off legitimately, but he defrauded a bank by obtaining credit for purchases of vehicles he either did not purchase or obtained credit in false names, using names of customers.”

Pour pleaded guilty to knowingly carrying on the business of a company, namely Swift Hire Ltd., with intent to defraud a creditor, namely Lombard North PLC, contrary to the Companies Act, between January 1, 2006 and September 31, 2007 and between October 1, 2007 and October 5, last year, within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court.

He also admitted that between January 1, 2006 and October 1, this year, within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, he was knowingly party to the carrying on of a business, namely Swift Hire Ltd. for a fraudulent purpose, namely dishonestly completing vehicle hire purchase agreements, contrary to the Companies Act.

Pour is accused of financing vehicles through Lombard North Central PLC, a division of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and financing the same vehicles through his customers, therefore doubling up and also using customers details to finance from Lombard.

Pour also pleaded guilty to dishonestly making a false representation to Martyn York and John Mercy that he would exchange £150,000 for Euros at an exchange rate of £1 to 1.39 Euros and credit their account between February 9 and October 31, 2008, within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court.

Many of the luxury vehicles have been sold to repay Lombard’s debts, but the couple are still suffering outstanding losses of £122,000.

Pour had shared a home with his Irish wife and three children.