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SERIAL fraudster Sami Raja has finally swapped a life on t he beach for eight years behind bars, more than a year after he jumped bail in London and fled to Dubai.

Raja, 33, from Grays, Essex, was part of a gang that cheated investors out of £2.4 million.

Between January 2012 and August 2013, their companies Harman Royce Ltd and Kendrick Zale Ltd sold almost worthless carbon credits for up to £6.50 apiece, with claims they could double in value.

In fact, there was no market that would allow investors to turn their carbon credits back into cash at any price. Raja was convicted in January 2019 of six counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering, but absconded to Dubai and was not in court to hear his sentence.

Since then, he has posted photos on social media of his luxurious lifestyle, including trips to the Maldives.

Officers from the City of London Police secured a European Arrest Warrant and Raja was detained when he travelled to Athens last month. He was brought back to the UK on Wednesday and appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, where he was ordered to begin his sentence.

Hayley Wade, who led the investigation for the police, described Raja as ‘a callous and greedy individual’. She added: ‘Raja cruelly targeted elderly individuals with the intention of defrauding them of their life savings.’

Raja has been on The Mail on Sunday’s radar for years. He was a salesman with corrupt stockbrokers White Square Investments, and was also behind investment firm Elite Gems Ltd, which I exposed as a scam in 2015.

And he was a director of ripoff company Gallisard Ltd, which marketed rare earth metals with false promises of 60 per cent profits.