From the swindling health worker who stole £160k from the NHS to the financial advisor who swindled £5m from scores of elderly victims, the ECHO today looks back at the Merseyside fraudsters behind the most callous of scams.
All nine of these fraudsters were caught out, convicted and subject to confiscation proceedings to claw back their criminal gains.
Conman Stephen Evans, who was jailed for more than four years over a brazen £5m investment racket, spent £1.5m on supercars including a lime green Lamborghini, a Porsche 911 as well as Bentleys and Mercedes.
The 31-year-old, formerly of Orlando Drive, Great Sankey, used people’s money on lavish holidays, jewellery and even £250,000 on a racehorse he renamed Fat Gary.
Wirral conman Malcolm Barber swindled £5.7m from 127 victims – mostly pensioners who had handed over their life savings and retirement funds – through an elaborate savings scam.
The 72-year-old, the former treasurer of the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition, was jailed for four years in January 2014.
Professional gambler John Bailey, 45, was this year locked up over a huge fraud that saw him fritter away unsuspecting victims’ cash online.
Bailey, nicknamed the Pencil Man, gambled their money away on online betting exchange Betfair, losing staggering sums. One victim alone lost more than £2million and another her student loan. Bailey, formerly from Crosby, was jailed for nine years.
A former Liverpool FC reserve impersonated a Premier League footballer in a desire to live a lavish lifestyle.
Anfield reject Medi Abalimba, 25, posed as Chelsea star Gael Kakuta to pull off a string of high-value credit card related frauds.
He was jailed for four years at Manchester Crown Court last October after admitting multiple fraud offences.
Stockbroker Simon Sibthorp stole more then £300,000 from an elderly client to pay for a luxury villa in the south of France.
The crooked financial advisor had been waiting for then 86-year-old Rita Allen to die so he wouldn’t get caught, Liverpool Crown Court heard in 2013. Sibthorb was found guilty of 19 counts of fraud and jailed for five years.
When people donated their spare change to charity collectors working on behalf of businessman Harris Polak, little did they know that most of the money was ending up in his back pocket.
The 54-year-old from Childwall Park Avenue defrauded more than £200,000 from Merseyside charities and spent the money on luxury holidays and cruises.
He was jailed for three years and nine months, in July 2013.
NHS admin worker Madeleine Webster, 47, spent years defrauding her own department of around £160k by ordering printer cartridges which nobody needed and selling them via eBay and through third parties.
Webster, of Cornice Road, Stoneycroft, was based at the Olive Mount site in Wavertree and had worked for the NHS for 22 years.
She pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and was sentenced to 26 months in jail in February 2014.
Edward Van Vessem used national newspapers to advertise luxury cars that did not exist. Would-be customers were ripped off to the tune of £122,000 after paying out for cars that never arrived.
Van Vessem set up fake companies as part of a series of frauds. But when buyers sent their money, no cars were delivered.
He was jailed for five years in August 2011.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/