A ‘sophisticated’ conman duped family friends into shelling out £600,000 on a sports betting ‘Ponzi scheme’ - before lavishing their money on himself.
Richard Evans, 41, was jailed for a seven-year scam which saw him convince 14 people they would make huge returns on an elaborate ‘spread betting’ operation.
The victims left out of pocket when the venture went ‘catastrophically wrong’ included a teacher who lost an inheritance she had been left by her father at the age of 11.
Most of the investors were ‘lifelong friends’ of Evans’s parents and struggled to believe someone they had known for years could defraud them, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.
Evans, a father-of-two, has now been jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to nine counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.
