A high-flyer with an obsession for antique toys pu

A high-flyer with an obsession for antique toys pulled
off a pnds stlng 12-million fraud to try and make his company a
world leader, a court heard today (fri).

Toymaster Jeffrey Levitt opened ‘magnificent’ operations
in London and New York for his company Mint and Boxed.

Film stars including Brooke Shields and Richard Gere
attended the glitzy opening of his American gallery.

But Southwark Crown Court heard how Levitt continued
to trade fraudulently when the concern was hopelessly insolvent.

It was claimed the father-of-four was suffering from a
personality defect but believed himself a ‘superman’ and could
not appreciate he was doing wrong because of his ‘blinkered
outlook’.

Jailing Levitt for a total of four years, Judge Christopher
Hardy said: ‘I have been told, and seen reports, to the effect that
you have been driven in this case by a childhood obsession with
toys which you have never outgrown, and to a degree I accept that’.

‘But you were also driven by two more basic obsessions
of the dishonest businessman – greed and vanity.

‘
He said Levitt had been a victim of the hysterical financial
boom of the late 1980s and then fallen victim to the recession.

He said the businessman had defrauded banks and other
creditors in a bid to keep his business afloat.

But the Judge said ‘the court has to keep faith with
thousands of businessman whose businesses have gone to the wall
in the last few years who have not resorted to dishonesty’.

‘In their darkest moments it would have been natural for
them to have been tempted to act as you did.

They resisted
temptation and you did not.

‘
The Judge continued that Levitt had carried on ‘fraud on
a massive scale’ and he must pass a deterrent sentence.

But he said Levitt was not an experienced businessman
and relied on the experience and knowledge of others.

Mr David Penry-Davey, QC prosecuting said of Mint and
Boxed ‘the surface glitz was real but beneath it was founded
on a house of cards.

‘
He said Levitt, of Home Close, Long Lane, Heronsgate,
Rickmansworth, Herts.

, dealt in antique toys around the globe.

He said the businessman appeared to be highly
successful and won the Queen’s Award for Export Achievment
in 1991.

Ironically the honour came weeks after the company
went into receivership in May the same year with debt of pnds
stlng 15 million.

‘This case involves the fraudulent obtaining of about
pnds stlng 12-million,’ said Mr Penry-Davey.

He said the case involved the obtaining of finance
from banks by deception using bogus sales under the Export
Credit Guarantee system – whereby companies have a facility
with banks to be paid in advance on exports.

Mr Penry-Davey said the hearing also involved the
undervaluation of imports to avoid tax and post-dating
invoices to delay the VAT payments.

He said in 1984, Levitt lived modestly in Stanmore,
Middlesex and ran his company from premises in Hendon,
north London.

In May 1989, he moved the business to the High Street,
Edgware, north London.

Mr Penry-Davey said the premises were described by one
employee as ‘magnificently appointed with no expense spared’.

Levitt also moved to a seven-bedroom mansion and bought
a fleet of expensive cars and frequently flew on Concorde.

In 1990, he opened his New York Gallery, Mr Penry-Davey
told the court.

‘A grand opening at the expensive end of Madison Avenue,
opened with all the razzamatazz and it was attended by film stars
Brooke Shields and Richard Gere.

‘
Counsel said the essence of the fraud was the creation
of false documents to support ‘ficticious sales and purchases
and the import and export of antique toys.

‘
The court heard Levitt first obtained an overdraft
facility based on the sales with Midland Bank and later with
NatWest.

But it became a situation where he was ‘robbing Peter
to pay Paul’ when repayments needed to be made or simply stalling
creditors.

Levitt, said to be a leading authority on the toys he
loved, even wrote a book called The World of Antique Toys.

A copy was sent to the Henry Ford Museum in Michican,
USA.

Mr Penry-Davey alleged the Museum’s letter of thanks
was used by Levitt to forge an order for US dollars 10.

5-million
with the museum.

Armed with the bogus document, Levitt was attempting to
raise pnds stlng 4.

5million loan from the Arab Banking Corporation
when the company went into receivership.

‘By that time Mint and Boxed was hopelessly insolvent,’
said counsel.

‘He used the letter to breathe hope into his creditors
that the business was still alive.

‘
Mr Penry-Davey said the banks were the main losers but
another creditor was Sir Anthony Jolliffe, an experienced
businessman and a former Lord Mayor of London.

He said Mint and Boxed had been successful to a degree
but ‘never to the extent it appeared’.

Mr Stephen Solley, QC, for Levitt, told the court of
his client’s mental problems.

He said Levitt had an ‘irrational passion’ for toys from
an early age.

He claimed the objects ‘meant more than money to him’.

Mr Solley added: ‘It is a very odd fraudster on this
scale who is not interested in the money.

‘
He said his motive was an obsession.

‘Had he done it
by honest means, it would have been the stuff legends were made
of.

‘
‘Certainly at the time he claimed a very important part
of the antiques market.

‘
He said Levitt, who grew up in north Harrow, had all the
trappings of wealth but never enjoyed them.

‘He found toys, inanimate objects, beautiful toys more
important than almost anything else around him.

‘
Mr Solley claimed the course of the ‘extravagantly’ run
company soaked up money and caused cash flow problems.

He alleged that city figures – including Sir Anthony –
were thrilled at the profits the company appeared to be making
and drove Levitt to new heights.

‘The fantasy allowed him to disregard the social and
legal realities of the real world,’ said Mr Solley.

‘Doctors said he hides fears about his own personality
by pretending he is a superman.

‘
Psychiatrists found Levitt had never grown up and that
he was ‘more like an adolescent.

‘
Counsel said Levitt had ‘duped’ people because he was
‘dressed up with confidence and authority’ but he alleged many
of the victims ‘should have known better’.

He said experienced businessmen had attached themselves
to Levitt.

‘If they got their fingers burnt it was because
those fingers were more grasping than they should have been.

‘
Counsel alleged the businessmen should have realised
Levitt’s level of spending in running the company was outside
the commercial terms that said his client had been ‘whipped
up to believe their was a greater international market’ than
there really was.

Mr Solley alleged that Levitt had been persuaded that
an American ‘flagship’ was needed, causing him to spend lavishly
in the States.

‘Sir Anthony actually wrote to President Reagan asking
him if he wanted to become a non-executive director of Mint
and Boxed but of course the president refused.

‘
Mr Solley claimed Levitt deserved credit for admitting
the fraud and his special circumstances.

The defendant first sought medical help in 1981 and
had further been treated after his company’s collapse.

Psychiatrists had diagnosed Levitt as being a schizoid
type of obsessive-compulsive.

But Mr Solley said of the Peter Pan figure ‘he now has
a chance to grow up if he has not done so already’.

Levitt pleaded guilty to eight sample charges of
fraudulent trading, evading VAT and evading import duty
between August 1988 and May 1991.

ends