Fraudulent wine broker jailed

A wine broker who defrauded vulnerable and elderly investors and then absconded with over £400,000 has been jailed for four years.

Harry Mosley, from Sevenoaks in Kent, was told by Judge Charles Macdonald QC that he had perpetrated: “A sustained, planned multiple victim fraud, also a heartless and cruel one which greatly damaged a number of lives.”

Mosley set up a broking company called Optimum Fine Wines in September 2012. Between then and May 2014 Maidstone Crown Court heard how he and several friends cheated 15 people out of large sums of money or their existing portfolios.

The victims were invariably elderly, the youngest was aged 57, the eldest 87. One 84 year-old man handed over more than £200,000 – the money had come from the sale of his flat after his wife had died – none of which has been returned to him and none of which was invested in wine as he had been told.

Two other victims of the fraud died before the trial began, while others are said to have little to no memory of dealing with Optimum due to their age.

Having accrued £420,000 Mosley is described as having “cut and run” and frittered the majority of the money away on a spending spree; over £100,000 in “lavish” bars, hotels and restaurants, on designer clothes and luxury goods.

He gambled and lost £57,000 in 16 months on spread betting and holidayed in Dubai.

Having pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and two counts of fraud conspiracy, Mosley was jailed for four years and four months on 31 March.

Macdonald said: “The only mitigation is your youth at the time [he was 22] and remorse. This is high culpability fraud.”

The judge also made a serious crime prevention order restricting Mosley’s business activities for five years.

The co-accused, Bradley Deadman – who went by the alias “Harry Croft” while at Optimum – and Lewis Hearson denied four charges of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and were acquitted.