A company director conned customers out of more than £3m to fund his lavish lifestyle including Rolex watches, fast cars and luxury holidays. Duncan Grant, 54, orchestrated a complex fraud to swindle investors who pumped cash into his business refitting ATMs and money counting machines.
But despite collecting around £3.8m over six years, Grant used just £549,000 for the company. He blew the rest on jewellery, flash motors and meals at fancy restaurants.
Unbeknown to his victims, Grant was a director of 16 companies, but had been bankrupt and changed his name twice before being made bankrupt again. Patronus, based in Crowborough, East Sussex, was a legitimate firm, but the fraudster used his clients' cash to pay for his luxury £1m-plus rented homes and his wife's expensive tastes, police said.
