A scammer who “lived the high life” as he made £400,000 by selling fake cruises in an international Ponzi-style scheme has been jailed for five years. Richard Lester backed his lavish lifestyle and gambling addiction with cash swindled from customers who paid for cruises that were never booked, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
The 56-year-old, of Swifts Green Road in Luton, Bedfordshire, caused customers “distress” and financial loss and would “gaslight” them into thinking it was their fault, Judge Alexander Mills said. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to five years in prison, having been found guilty of fraudulent trading and concealing criminal property in December last year after a trial at the Essex court. Lester was also disqualified from acting as the director of any company for nine years.
Passing sentence, Judge Mills told him: “You not only took from these individuals and caused them distress, frustration, uncertainty, disappointment and financial loss, but you sought to gaslight them. 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.”
Some of the victims had booked cruises for birthday celebrations or as wedding gifts, the judge said. He went on: “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.”
Lester ran Cruise Direct UK Ltd from 2009 to 2014, selling “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.
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.
Some only discovered this when they arrived at ports for holidays and were turned away by cruise operators. Although customers were refunded after cancellations, they had to buy more cruise miles due to inflation in the number of miles required to purchase a cruise.
When the company ceased trading, customers were left with worthless cruise miles worth hundreds or even thousands of pounds. 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.
The defendant stole £406,856.39 from 184 victims worldwide, including in the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany and Japan, Essex Police said.