Mystery ‘Gary’ blamed for £90,000 Boohoo and pensions swindle
A man accused of scamming a family friend out of thousands contests he is actually a victim of a mystery criminal.
The bookkeeper told a jury that a man he trusted to legitimately invest funds conned him out of large sums of cash.
Andrew Walker denied inventing a fantasy man, called Gary, to try to escape the blame for allegedly duping a friend out of £90,000 - under the alleged guise of putting it into a share options scheme.
The 59-year-old defendant, formerly of Leicester Road, Field Head, Markfield, denies two counts of fraud, by falsely representing the woman friend’s money would be invested in a scheme with Boohoo.com, between January 2014 and June 2018 and that he was also investing some pension money on her behalf.
Giving evidence in his defence, Walker said he had previously been a bookkeeper for the alleged victim, and was godfather to one of her children.
He said she entrusted him with various cash amounts totalling £70,000, to invest with the man Gary, with whom he claimed to have had successful financial dealings with over many years.
The complainant later transferred £18,000 of her pension money to Walker’s account, with a further £2,000 in cash, for investment in another fund, that allegedly disappeared.
Walker said he later handed back £37,500 to the complainant, but she disputes ever having more than £4,600 and claims to have no idea where her investment money has gone.
Walker said he trusted Gary and they regularly met at racecourses. He said Gary claimed to be a director at Boohoo.com but the company has never heard of him, the court heard.
Walker said both he and the complainant ended up being the victim of a scam, in which they both lost a lot of money.
He told Leicester Crown Court: “It’s not a complicated trial. At the end of the day I accept I received cash off [the complainant] and there’s a discrepancy over what was returned.”
The court heard that during the alleged fraud period Walker spent £80,000 gambling online, although received about £50,000 in winnings.
Walker claimed he financed his gambling with his own earnings as a selfemployed administrator, where his salary was mostly paid in cash, as well as using his winnings and also placed bets in person.
He said he invested the alleged victim’s money in good faith with the man called Gary, who “conned us both” and may now be living in Asia.
Walker said after realising he had been duped, he did not report the matter to the police, because he was trying to track Gary down himself.
The defendant said he had no phone number, address, email address or any contact details for Gary and no paperwork relating to any investments.
He told the jury Gary’s surname, which was a different surname initially given to the police in his interview.
Tom Welshman, prosecuting, said: “Gary is a fiction, a man you’ve made up.” “That’s not true,” said Walker.
The defendant said he would regularly meet Gary at racecourses, to either make investments or collect quarterly returns, where the date and venue for their next meeting would be agreed face to face, and they would rendezvous at the “first furlong post at the start of the second race”.
Mr Welshman said: “You spin this ridiculous story about a make-believe man to try and get yourself out of trouble, isn’t that right?”
Walker replied: “No, that’s not true.” He denied using the complainant’s money for his own purposes.
The trial continues.
ACCUSED CLAIMS HE WAS ALSO VICTIM OF