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| Fraudsters: Sabin & Ridpath |
The jailed masterminds behind a £7.75m precious metals investment scam will serve more time behind bars if they don’t compensate their victims.
They were convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court of a plot to sell investors “worthless barrels of junk” and approximately £3.6m is owed to the 250-odd victims of the scheme.
Ringleaders Christopher Sabin, 45, of Eyot House, Church Street, Shoreham, Sevenoaks and Tobias Ridpath, 54, of Wellington Square, Hastings each received nine years.
On Thursday Sabin, whose criminal benefit was calculated as £6.57m, was ordered to pay £14,469 within three months or serve an additional eight months imprisonment.
Ridpath, whose benefit was also £6.57m, was ordered to pay £201,571 within three months or serve an additional two-and-a-half years imprisonment.
Investigators found Sabin’s only real asset was a second-hand Range Rover because his family home is in his partner’s name, but Ridpath has a 40% stake in the property he owns with his wife.
Prolific salesman Nicholas Start, 37, of Spencer Close, Pamber Heath, Tadley, Hampshire, who pocketed at least £132,000 in commission over a few months received seven years imprisonment after the trial.
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| "Prolific": Start |
His total benefit was calculated as £868,753 and he must pay £153,034 in compensation within three months or serve an additional eighteen months imprisonment.
A fourth lower level participant in the scam, William Berkeley, 54, of Barrington Court, Chichester Terrace, Horsham, who received four years, made a nominal £1 compensation payment.
Using a misleading website and inaccurate glossy brochure they either cold-called customers with scripted patter or placed ads offering the opportunity to purchase supposedly lucrative metals vital to 80% of the world’s industry.
Prosecutor Mr. David Durose told jurors Denver Trading - started by Sabin and Ridpath - was run from a short-term £860 per month office in the City.
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The court was told Start headed a “prolific” brokerage - London Commodity Markets - and Berkeley took over the Swiss branch of the business after the original director quit, claiming the business “stank horribly.”
One typical investor, Cecil McMurray, invested £243,000. “He lost a vast amount of money.”
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| One Quid: Berkeley |
Another client bought 100 kilos of rare metals in September, 2012 for £39,000 and two-and-a-half years later that investment was worth £285.
The investors did not know approximately 50% of the money they handed over immediately went to the company as a sales commission - halving the investment, the jury were told.
“Not one of them have made a penny and they have lost pension pots and life savings. The losses are in the millions and millions of pounds.
“They were duped into investing,” explained Mr. Durose, who said the fraud lasted approximately one year from Spring, 2012.
Judge Rajeev Shetty told the four scammers when jailing them: “All the buyers have ended up with worthless barrels of junk, either gathering dust or have long since been disposed of. The loss to them has been total, no one has made one pound back.
“The jury found this was all a scam, a ruthless vehicle designed to rip-off people of their savings and pension pots to make you all wealthy.
“Making as much money as possible was the name of the game and that game is now up.”
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