Kentish Express Ashford & District
Man stole from friend to help ‘damsel in distress’
Who is Lisa Johnson?
That was question which has left a courtroom baffled.
To Willesborough chartered accountant Brian Ridpath she is a “damsel in distress” who needed rescuing from a corrupt regime in Nigeria.
To his close pal, Christopher Rundle, she was a sewing machine importer and business associate of Ridpath who needed emergency funds.
However, to police officers and a judge, Lisa Johnson – if she really exists – was a woman who used her sex appeal to dupe the 79-year-old Ridpath into sending her £150,000 of his friend’s money!
Now the churchgoing and wellrespected professional has lost his good reputation, his friend, his home and now his freedom.
Ridpath, of Cornes Close, told lies to business pal Mr Rundle to persuade him into lending cash with a promise it would be repaid by Lisa Johnson within days.
Finally, after a year of prevarication after the scam was revealed, the accountant was asked directly by Judge Simon James “Has he ever met this woman, yes or no?”.
Ridpath, who cut a sad figure in the dock at Canterbury Crown Court, whispered to his lawyer who told the judge “No, only in the sense of having met online”.
Even as police were probing the disappearance of the money, Ridpath believed in her existence and stories about hundreds of thousands of dollars in Nigerian bank accounts.
As his former friend was trying to recoup the missing funds Ridpath was secretly sending her more money from another bank account.
He was only prevented from sending the entire proceeds from the sale of his home by an injunction, the court heard.
Iestyn Morgan, prosecuting, said it was accepted that Ridpath, who is single, had not benefited from the fraud, which he admitted only on the day his trial was due to start.
He told how in November 2014 the accountant, who had worked on Mr Rundel’s VAT returns, asked to meet his friend.
Ridpath told of his business relationship with Lisa Johnson who was working in Nigeria and needed £30,000 and had $640,000 awaiting from a deal with China.
He said the two had met in Liverpool and he assured his friend she had the money to repay but days later, the accountant asked for another loan of £90,000 and then another £30,000.
Mr Morgan said that “Lisa Johnson” had even sent emails to Mr Rundle with tales of her passport being seized and hotel bills that needing settling.
He said by November 16, Rid-