A well-known businessman has been jailed for stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from a hotel after it was destroyed by a fire.
Simon Matthews-Williams was previously a successful hotelier who owned sites such as Liverpool city centre's waterfront Crowne Plaza, the £15million Hotel Indigo on Chapel Street and James Street's three-star Days Inn. But the 62-year-old is now beginning a 28-month prison sentence after abusing his position of trust to transfer nearly £800,000 out of the bank account of one of his former companies and never paying the huge sum back.
A trial at Liverpool Crown Court previously heard that the "experienced company director" was a minor stakeholder in the Gateway to Wales Hotel, near to the A494 in Deeside, North Wales. By early 2019 though, Matthews-Williams "no longer had any role" in the business and "had long given up any financial interest or management in the hotel".
