A fraudster who duped more than 8,000 people into investing in celebrity-backed luxury Caribbean holiday resorts in a £226 million scam has been jailed for 12 years. David Ames, 70, of Basildon, Essex, enriched himself and his family to the tune of £6.2 million, paying his wife and son £10,000 a month, while thousands of victims lost their pensions and life savings.
He convinced more than 8,000 people to invest in the Harlequin Group – a hotel and resorts development venture endorsed by celebrities and politicians, including the prime ministers of Barbados, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Backed by Liverpool Football Club, the project used international sporting figures, including South African golfer Gary Player, tennis star Pat Cash and Wales rugby coach Rob Howley, in promotional material.
Former footballers Andy Townsend, John Barnes and David Fairclough, cricketers Ronni Irani and Martin Bicknell, and Location, Location, Location presenter Phil Spencer also provided endorsements. More than 8,200 units, including villas and hotel rooms, were sold in seven locations in the Caribbean and Brazil but only 176 were ever built at one resort in Buccament Bay, St Vincent.
Ames denied two counts of fraud by abuse of position between 2010 and 2015 but was found guilty of both charges by a jury at Southwark Crown Court and he was jailed for 12 years on Friday. Judge Christopher Hehir said that, although he accepted Harlequin was not fraudulent from the outset, by 2010 Ames was “operating a gigantic Ponzi scheme” backed by a “sophisticated marketing operation” involving “celebrity endorsements and some very lavish entertaining indeed”.
“You are a thrice bankrupt fraudster who has caused losses of over £200 million by your fraudulent conduct,” he told him. “In short, you are a menace to anyone who was to do business with you.”
Victims believed they had a secure investment in property but, with a funding shortfall of £1.2 billion by 2012 – seven years after Ames launched the scheme – investors were exposed to a near 100% risk of loss. Martin Dansey, 52, lost the entirety of his and his wife’s £241,500 life savings with Harlequin, leaving him in a “desperate financial situation”.
A summary of his victim impact statement said he has suffered “enormous stress” and had to sell his house to support his wife and two young children. The judge said Ames made “extravagant and misleading claims to investors”, who were led to believe the properties they were investing in would appreciate in value.
“You were clearly far more interested in pocketing investors’ money than ensuring those investors got what they were paying for,” he told Ames. “You portrayed yourself as a visionary entrepreneur. In truth you were neither of those things.
“You were a slick and plausible salesman and thoroughly dishonest with it.”
Lisa Osofsky, director, Serious Fraud Office, said: “Those who are trusted with investors’ money have a fundamental duty to safeguard the interests of those investors. As today’s sentencing shows, we will not tolerate those who abuse that trust, show contempt for their victims and the law, and squander other people’s money for their own gain.”
