A con artist who funded his gambling addiction by duping hundreds of victims into buying forged cruise tickets in an international Ponzi-style scam has been jailed.
Richard Lester, 56, of Luton, Bedfordshire, caused customers ‘distress’ and financial loss and would ‘gaslight’ them into thinking it was their fault, Judge Alexander Mills said.
Some victims flew as far as Florida to board cruises they thought they had tickets for, before being turned away at the quay.
On Tuesday, he was sentenced to five years in prison, having been found guilty of stealing more than £400,000 through fraudulent trading and concealing criminal property after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
He was also disqualified from acting as the director of any company for nine years.
In 2009 Lester set up Cruisevoucher – a scheme where customers would buy vouchers for cruises up to three years in advance.
Two years later he changed his business model, renamed the company ‘Cruisemiles’ and stopped booking the cruises his customers believed they would be taking, keeping the money for himself.
‘You not only took from these individuals and caused them distress, frustration, uncertainty, disappointment and financial loss but you sought to gaslight them,’ Judged Mills said as he passed sentence.
‘Their upset was apparently their fault, leading at least some to question their own actions when all of the time this was down to you.’
Richard Lester, 56, backed his lavish lifestyle and gambling addiction with cash swindled from customers who paid for cruises that were never booked, Chelmsford Crown Court heard
Lester is pictured at the 2012 World Travel Awards in India after his firm won an accolade
Lester used several bizarre aliases to avoid justice, going by the names of Henry Lester, Les Richards, Lord Lester, Richie Lescovitch and Barry Williams.
His company sold ‘cruise vouchers’ and ‘cruise miles’ which customers could redeem for discounted cruises.
Initially, some customers successfully booked and sailed on cruises and the firm received a ‘prestigious World Travel Award’ in 2012, the court heard.
Following his sentencing, video footage emerged showing Lester at the 2012 World Travel Awards in India, where his firm won one of the accolades on offer.
At the time, when he had already began scamming customers, Lester said it felt ‘absolutely fantastic’ and ‘unbelievable’ to have beaten out global brands such as Avios and Emirates.
He said he was ‘totally flabbergasted’ by the award and claimed it showed ‘our commitment to our customers and that we take everything so seriously’.
However, many people later received false confirmations for cruises that were never actually booked.
Funds from new customers were used for earlier customers and to back Lester’s lavish lifestyle, gambling and other business ventures, the court heard.
Lester’s agents, who had themselves bought thousands of pounds of miles, earned commission by selling more miles to customers, but were also trapped in his web with no way to reclaim the money they had lost.
Lester was sentenced to five years behind bars at Chelmsford Crown Court (pictured)
Elizabeth Erskine, an agent based in New South Wales, Australia, said it was a ‘harrowing’ experience for her.
‘I had to experience the fear and distress of my life crashing around me,’ she told the court.
Essex Police spent 10 years investigating the scam after Lester’s firm was struck off by Companies House in 2014.
They found that Lester stole £406,856.39 from 184 victims as far apart as the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany and Japan, as well as the UK.
Sentencing him, Judge Mills said his victims could only watch their dream holidays ‘drift off into the morning sun’.
‘You were a professional gambler, gambling in poker tournaments and major poker tournaments, winning significant amounts of money, living the high life in Las Vegas and elsewhere,’ he told him.
Lester was also disqualified from acting as the director of any company for nine years.