Three convicted in £37m UK fine wine investment scam
Three men have been found guilty of fraudulent trading after a decade-long fine wine scam that saw victims lose more than £6 million. The scheme, run through Imperial Wine & Spirits Merchant, misled investors into overpaying for Bordeaux wines at mark-ups of up to 400%.
On 5 August at St Albans Crown Court, Ben Cazaly, 42, Greg Assemakis, 39, and Dominic D’Sa, 45, were convicted following a Hertfordshire County Council Trading Standards investigation into Imperial Wine & Spirits Merchant, previously Imperial Wines of London.
While £6 million in losses was recorded across 41 victims, more than £37 million flowed through the company’s accounts during its ten years of operation. The business, founded by Cazaly in 2008, was marketed as a family-run fine wine investment house with offices in London, Paris and Hong Kong, claiming direct connections to Bordeaux châteaux and vineyards.
In reality, it operated from a call centre where staff cold-called prospective investors using scripts designed to manipulate and mislead.
How the scam worked
The company persuaded clients to buy prestigious wines such as Château Mouton Rothschild on the promise that profit would only be taken when the wine was sold. In truth, initial prices were inflated, sometimes by more than 400%, making any resale at a profit almost impossible.
Although most of the wine existed in bonded warehouses, some victims paid thousands yet received nothing at all. Others lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in savings, often after being targeted during vulnerable moments such as bereavement.
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Tactics included hiring luxury taxis, lavishly entertaining potential investors, and sending out glossy brochures carrying unauthorised logos from newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times. Fake names were used and staff were reportedly trained using films such as The Wolf of Wall Street.
Trading Standards intervention
Trading Standards officers raided the firm’s Groveland Court, London, premises on 8 November 2018. They found sales scripts, commission sheets, complaint letters, a Wine for Dummies book and call recordings. A slogan on the wall read: “No means Yes”.
Recordings played to the jury revealed staff pressuring vulnerable people. In one case, a confused woman who did not know what a payment card was or who she banked with was repeatedly asked for her details.
Cllr Ajanta Hilton, executive member for community safety at Hertfordshire County Council, said the scam’s impact was both financial and emotional, praising victims for their “bravery in telling their stories so that these callous criminals could be brought to justice.”
National response and next steps
The Hertfordshire investigation was supported by the National Trading Standards Tri Regional Investigations Team. Chair Trish Burls described the fraud as “a coordinated scam of lies, deceit and manipulation” that preyed on people’s enthusiasm for wine, stripping many of their life savings. She urged anyone who suspects a similar scam to contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.
Sentencing for Cazaly, Assemakis and D’Sa is scheduled for 24 October 2025.
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