THE lorry driver who offered to “sell” the Ritz Hotel in a £250 million fraud has won permission to appeal against his sentence.

Conman Anthony Lee, 49, who used to deliver potatoes for a Dunnington firm, was jailed for five years in July after he failed to convince a jury of his innocence.

Within a month his lawyers started the legal procedure to have his sentence reduced. He did not appeal against his conviction.

Now a High Court judge has ruled that his case should go before the Court of Appeal Criminal Division where three judges will decide how long he should remain behind bars.

“I am hopeful we can win a reduction in his sentence,” said John Howard, Lee’s solicitor.

In July, Judge Stephen Robbins described Lee’s fraud as an “elaborate and outrageous scam” that netted him £1 million. The fraud began with Lee, of Broad Lane, Beal, near Selby, who had also lived in Whixley near Boroughbridge, claiming to be a “close friend and associate” of the reclusive billionaire brothers Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay, who own the Ritz.

He claimed they wanted to sell the iconic building in London for £250 million through a third party for “secretive reasons”. He was lying.

The brothers had never heard of him, Lee was in reality an undischarged bankrupt with a police caution for theft and a chartered surveyor estimated the value of the Ritz at least £600 million. Potential buyer Terence Collins went to Dutch billionaire financier Marcus Boekhoom to finance a £1 million initial payment in December 2006. But the sale never happened, the promised paperwork never materialised and the money was never returned.

Lee told a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court he was the fall guy in the story and a “straight talking Yorkshire man”. But the jury convicted him of obtaining £1 million by deception.