A MAN who defrauded thousands of victims out of £226 million has been jailed for 12 years.

David Ames, 70, formerly of Bluewell Wood, Brock Hill, Wickford, enriched himself and his family to the tune of £6.2 million, paying his wife and son £10,000 a month.

He fraudulently abused his position as Chairman of the Harlequin business, exposing over 8,000 investors to huge losses between 2010 and 2015.

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Victims parted with pensions and life savings, believing that their money would be invested in holiday properties in St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Barbados and other Caribbean nations.

Echo: Jailed: David Ames - Image: SFOJailed: David Ames - Image: SFO (Image: Image: SFO)

In reality, the scheme had no external funding and never delivered what was promised. Almost no properties were ever constructed and 99 percent of those who invested made no return.

Ames sold to a large number of people with Self-Invested Personal Pensions (“SIPPs”) before regulations were tightened in 2012, many of them elderly with little investing experience.

Countless investors were forced to delay their retirement, having lost their pensions and life savings.

Many victims continue to struggle with financial hardship, some having re-mortgaged their homes and continuing to repay outstanding debts, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which led the investigation, has said.

SFO investigators uncovered that Ames had enriched his family by £6.2 million through the Harlequin Group.

He and his family took frequent holidays to exotic destinations, travelled in business class and stayed in expensive hotels. Ames even employed a personal chauffeur.

Delivering the sentence at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Hehir said: “You were clearly far more interested in pocketing investors’ money than in ensuring those investors were getting what they were paying for”.

He added: “You were a slick and plausible salesman and thoroughly dishonest with it... You are a menace to anybody unfortunate enough to do business with you”.

Ames was led from the dock and remanded in custody.

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.”