A SCOTS lawyer who posed as a wealthy investor to con two venture capitalists out of £250,000 has been jailed for six years.
Gordon Manson, 48, used the cash in an attempt to negotiate the takeover of a business worth £19 million in London.
He was foiled when the owner of the firm mentioned the deal to a friend and was told Manson was a conman.
Manson, of Edinburgh, had been jailed for five years in 2003 after attempting a similar £17m fraud in his home city.
Jailing him at the Old Bailey, the Common Serjeant of London, Brian Barker, QC, said: "Your whole lifestyle has been self-centred and based on dishonesty and self-delusion.
"You gave every appearance your interest in that company was genuine, using professional advisers. Subsequently, your true identity was discovered and you were arrested.
"You were financing these activities on the back of two loans from venture finance companies. This was fraudulent from the outset and professionally planned."
The Old Bailey heard Manson first made an approach to invest in Avanta, a serviced office company, in late 2010.
Posing as Fraser Henderson, he claimed he was cash rich, with a portfolio of serviced offices outside London.
In May 2012, he made another approach to buy the business and met with the owner, David Alberto, at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair to discuss the deal.
Manson said he ran a property investment firm and spent most of his time in Andorra and Madrid. He also claimed he had access to a £50m fund to invest.
Prosecutor Antony Swift said: "There is not believed to be any truth in his claims."
Mr Alberto spent £80,000 in professional fees relating to the deal before learning his supposed investor was a conman.
He contacted police and then arranged a meeting with Manson at an office in London so the fraudster could be arrested.
Manson said he obtained loans worth £250,000 in order to finance the acquisition of Avanta, including £100,000 from Jeremy Keith and £150,000 from Zafir Rafiq. Both loans were back by personal guarantees falsified by Manson.
Mr Swift said: "His explanation was the deal could have worked and nobody would have lost anything. The Crown says that is simply untrue.
"Clearly when a fraudster like the defendant is looking to buy a company like Avanta the risk is once he gets his foot in the door he will use its good standing in order to fleece them and line his pockets."
Defence barrister Wayne Cleaver said the money had been spent on surveyors, lawyers and other expenses and there was nothing left.
Manson pled guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article