A FORMER potato delivery man has been jailed for five years for an ambitious scam to sell The Ritz hotel in London for £250 million.

Jobless Anthony Lee, 49, who used to live in Whixley, near Boroughbridge, and worked for a Dunnington firm, found victims who were interested in the high-stakes world of trophy properties.

He then sucked them in with false promises until they handed over £1 million, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.

Lee, of Broad Lane, Beal, near Selby, was convicted earlier this month of obtaining the £1 million payment by deception.

Sentencing him, Judge Stephen Robbins, described the offence as an “elaborate and outrageous scam”.

The judge sentenced unemployed lorry driver Lee, who used to deliver potatoes for RS Cockerill of Dunnington, to five years’ jail, less the 25 days he has already served in custody.

He said: “You were found guilty by a jury of this elaborate and outrageous scam, purporting to sell The Ritz hotel, thereby obtaining £1 million from your victim.”

Lee convinced potential buyer Terence Collins that he was a “close friend and associate” of the reclusive billionaire Barclay brothers, owners of the prestigious hotel in Piccadilly.

But Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay had never even heard of Lee and were completely unaware he was claiming to be able to sell the landmark building from under their noses.

Mr Collins sought the support of Dutch billionaire financier Marcus Boekhoorn to finance the £1 million payment in December 2006, telling him the reclusive Barclay brothers had “secretive reasons”

for selling The Ritz through a third party.

But the sale never happened, the promised paperwork never materialised and the money was never returned, the jury heard.

Lee claimed in court the £1 million payment related to a separate property deal he had with Mr Collins.

The court heard Mr Collins agreed to refer to the payment as an introductory fee for a deal at the golf course at Flaxby, near Knaresborough, “for accounting reasons”–- despite Mr Boekhoorn, whose money it was, never having heard anything about this.

The judge told him: “This con or scam or sting, whatever term is used, was probably motivated by your mistaken belief that Terry Collins had deprived you of another potentially lucrative property deal and it may be that this offence was done out of revenge.”

Earlier, Nicholas Johnson, for Lee, told the court his client was diabetic, suffered from kidney disease and had been the main carer for his partner until his conviction. He said: “The custodial setting has hit him hard. He is very different in his aspect.”


Detective’s solo triumph hailed

THE conviction of Anthony Lee came about following a painstaking solo investigation by a North Yorkshire Police detective.

DS Garry Ridler, who has previously tackled crime in the Ryedale area, spent more than a year on what he described as “extremely complex investigation”.

He said his inquiries had taken him across the UK and to Holland, which “certainly increased the difficulties in drawing together the evidence to secure the convictions”. He said: “It is highly satisfying from a professional point of view to achieve this result.”

Det Insp Ian Wills, head of the financial investigation unit at North Yorkshire Police, said: “I am particularly delighted for DS Garry Ridler who has worked solo on this case throughout; a feat which has both amazed and won the admiration of the prosecutor Anuja Dhir QC. He is a credit to himself, his profession and to North Yorkshire Police.”

Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs said: “As a professional discipline, financial investigation is a particularly complex, intricate and demanding area of police work, and it is one in which DS Garry Ridler so clearly excels.”