Boiler room fraud gang made £1.5million
A fraud gang duped investors into buying diamonds for twenty times their value before using the £1.5m profit to fund lavish shopping sprees in Selfridges, Louis Vuitton and Harrods, a court has heard.
Victims were allegedly lured into the ‘boiler room’ scam by ‘persistent and persuasive’ salesmen who told them the limited coloured stones would pay handsome returns because they were from mines which were closed or closing.
But those involved had allegedly valued the yellow diamonds at more than 2000 per cent their worth, Southwark Crown Court heard.