CLUGSTON:CROOK DUBBED ‘CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE’ ADMITS LATEST CRIME SPREE
A serial conman dubbed ‘Champagne Charlie’ is facing a lengthy jail term for cheating businesses out of £18,000 by selling them bubbly at bargain prices.
John Clugston, 64, has been convicted of identical frauds three times in the last eight years – and was once branded an ‘incorrigible rogue’ by an Old Bailey judge.
In the latest case the crook visited offices across London, pretending to have cases of leftover Bollinger from parties, and offering to sell it for between £1,000 and £1,500.
Ater taking cash, the fraudster failed to return to fulfil his side of the bargain.
Clugston admitted six counts of fraud by false representation following a short hearing before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
He was arrested on Tuesday following a manhunt that ended with him being spotted on a bus in Clapham Junction by an off-duty detective from the team mounting the search.
Clugston was jailed for six years in 2003, later reduced to four years, after making off with at least £30,000 by offering top quality champagne at bargain prices.
In June 2007 he was caught again but given a chance to beat his gambling habit with a nine month community order with supervision by probation officers.
On September 15, 2008, he walked into the office of Kathleen Morrell at the Morrell Business Centre in Curtain Road, Old Street, east London.
Clugston posed as the director from the nearby estate agents claiming he had a surplus of cases of Bollinger and Cristal champagne for £100 and £350 for 12 bottles respectively.
Bollinger retails at up to £30 a bottle.
Sentencing him to three years jail at the Old Bailey in December 2008, Judge Timothy Pontius said: ‘You are without doubt a thoroughgoing (corr) dishonest rogue and you are plainly an incorrigible rogue.’
His latest offences were committed in Kingston, Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham and the City of London.
Clugston, formerly of Upton Avenue, Southwick, Brighton, will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on a date yet to be fixed.
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