A greedy financial adviser claimed he worked for s

A greedy financial adviser claimed he worked for stars such as
Adam Faith and Roger Daltry so he could fleece more than a hundred
thousand pounds from trusting friends, a court heard today
(Fri).

And as the head of RPS Business Consultants based in Romford
Market, Romford, crooked Roy Smith, 32, would stave off concerned
investors by lying about his wife being struck by cancer.

Smith would sell his firm as a massive success with a muti-
million pound turn-over when persuading clients to part with large
sums of money in the hope that he would invest it for them.

He even claimed that he gave financial advice to stars including
Adam Faith and Roger Daltry and promoter Barry Hearn.

He also said he had business ties with giant companies such as
Pepsi-Cola, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

Smith, of Longhayes Avenue, Chadwell Heath, Romford, pleaded
guilty to thirty charges of obtaining property by deception and three
charges of theft between June 1989 and August last year.

He asked for a further 33 similar charges of deception to be
taken into consideration.

Jailing Smith for six years Judge Nicholas Medawar, QC, said that
unlike cases of violence where injuries would eventually clear up, the
effects of such frauds remained for years.

‘The full consequences for those you fleeced are yet to be known.

They will suffer as a result of what you have done for the rest of
their lives.

‘
Judge Medawar said that ‘dishonesty, deceit, lies and avarice’
were at the root of what he did.

‘The iniquity of your behaviour was in taking a sum well in
excess of pnds stlg 110,000 mostly from those you represented as being
your friends.

‘
At the end of Judge Medawar’s judgement several victims of the
scam stood up in the public gallery and applauded the length of
sentence.

Balding Smith, who was recently divorced by his wife, bowed his
head in shame during much of the proceedings.

Mr Stephen Kramer, prosecuting, said that in total the fraud
netted him more than pnds stlg 115,000.

The court heard that RPS – which included Smith, a book-keeper, a
personal female assistant and several members of staff – started in
1987 offering ‘a variety of services’ mainly to small businesses.

Counsel said that Smith would use funds misappropriated from his
victims to ‘prop up his business and support his lifestyle and to go
on what were called business trips to France where he went along with
his personal assistant.

‘
Many of the losers were small investors who ran their own
businesses in the Romford area and at one stage had been friends with
the defendant.

The biggest losers of the fraud were the Sofroniou (correct)
family who owned a Romford based dry cleaning business and between
them were said to have lost pnds stlg 53,700.

‘Smith said he dealt with people like Adam Faith and Roger
Daltry.

This appears to have been a figment of his imagination.

‘He gave the impression he was well connected and successful,’
said Mr Kramer.

Smith persuaded Mrs Gillian Sofroniou to part with a pnds stlg
40,000 cheque in the belief that it would be invested in ‘American
long bonds.

‘
‘He made no effort to invest the money.

‘
Counsel said that Smith put the money straight into his overdrawn
business bank account.

When Miss Sofroniou asked for documentation detailing the
investment she never got it.

‘He gave a number of excuses, one that his wife was dying of
cancer.

In that way he was able to stave them off,’ continued Mr
Kramer.

Another two members of the same family parted with more than pnds
stlg 9,000 between them thinking that it was going to be invested in
an off-shore trust account.

The court was told that Wayne and Gillian Sweeting, who owned a
Romford based car repair firm called ‘Crash Company’ lost more than
pnds stlg 30,000.

Smith charged the married couple for book-keeping services while
misappropriating funds that he claimed had been paid either to the
Inland Revenue or into an Eagle Star pension policy.

Other victims said to have lost hundreds of pounds in the scam
included Kevin and Martin Wallis who owned a small Romford based
electrical installation company.

Vehicle technician Peter Smith (not related to deft) was fleeced
of some pnds stlg 4,000 while butcher Robert Evans lost nearly pnds
stlg 5,000 in the belief that there money was being invested.

Mr Kramer said that the final loser was Smith’s ‘lifelong friend’
Victor Biebuyck (correct).

In September last year Smith simply wrote himself out a cheque
for pnds stlg 3,500 after finding Mr Biebuyck’s building society
cheque book in a drawer.

Counsel explained how Smith continued the fraud even after he was
first arrested and bailed in March last year.

He had declined to answer police questions.

Mr Kevin de Haan, (correct) defending, referred to recent much
publicised trials such as the Barlow Clowes case in explaining that
Smith gained ‘none of the glittering prizes’ such as yachts and
country estates from his fraud.

‘The money has gone into the business which expanded.

.

.

.

in its
embryonic period beyond its capability.

‘He has always lived in a relatively modest house in Romford.

There were no Bentleys – he drives an Audi,’ continued counsel.

‘The offending began almost at the beginning of the recession.

‘
Mr De Haan said that there was ‘some prospect’ when Smith is
released of his working in a family business and starting to repay
some of the money he stole.

‘It was not a company built up as an engine for fraud.

It
became fraudulent because he was weak and selfish,’ added counsel.

ENDS