A conman behind a £400million Caribbean fraud that scammed thousands including property guru Phil Spencer has been ordered to pay back just £283,000.
Former double glazing salesman David Ames was jailed for 12 years in 2022 for defrauding 8,000 victims in the scam unwittingly backed by ex-golfer Gary Player, former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and footballer Andy Townsend.
Judge Christopher Hehir found that although Ames generated almost £400million from the operation, only £283,321.72 was recoverable – less than 0.1 per cent.
‘While he was a thoroughly dishonest steward of other peoples’ money, David Ames was also an incompetent one,’ the judge ruled.
‘While many millions of pounds of Harlequin investor money is missing, most of that has not gone into [his] pocket, or those of his family: it has been simply been squandered and lost.’
The Harlequin operation was described by the judge as ‘a gigantic Ponzi scheme, whereby investor monies were applied willy-nilly to whatever Ames himself wanted them spent on.’
While Harlequin was operational, Ames spent a million pounds of investor money on sand that was dumped on the rocky beach at Buccament Bay in St Lucia before being swept away.
Roughly half a million pounds was wasted on building a pirate galleon in Indonesia which sprung a leak then caught fire while being transported to the resort before being dumped in a warehouse then eventually destroyed by a hurricane.
Ames even tried to establish his own airline, Harlequin Air, which would move clients around the islands – but this never got off the ground.
Former double glazing salesman David Ames was jailed in 2022 for defrauding 8,000 victims in the scam
The Harlequin investment scheme was unwittingly backed by ex-golfer Gary Player, former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and footballer Andy Townsend, pictured above with Ames
Property guru Phil Spencer appeared on promotional material for the scheme, and told the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast he was deceived by Ames into investing his own money
Judge Hehir said Ames had made tainted gifts to his family including just under £400,000 to his wife, Carole, £54,000 to his son Matthew, £516,000 to another son Dan and almost £100,000 to his daughter, Nicola Kelliher.
But he found that Carole, who was made bankrupt alongside her husband, has ‘very limited means’ and was unlikely to be ‘sitting on concealed cash,’ so he declined to add her tainted gifts to the confiscation order.
Daniel Ames, described as ‘the least unimpressive member of the Ames family to give evidence,’ no longer had the means to cover anything like the full sum of the tainted gifts given to him so just £40,000 was included in the order.
The judge also declined to include nearly £3million used to buy land in Thailand in 2006 and a missing £195,000 from the £400,000 sale of Dubai property in 2013.
Roughly half a million pounds was wasted on building a pirate galleon in Indonesia named the Pearl. The ship sprung a leak then caught fire while being transported to the resort before being dumped in a warehouse then eventually destroyed by a hurricane.
Ames bought a fleet of planes for his own airline, Harlequin Air, which never took off
‘I am in no doubt that (Ames) willfully squandered the money of Harlequin investors to buy land in Thailand, and I think he probably let that land slip from his grasp thereafter,’ he wrote in his judgement.
‘That is sadly typical of the way he operated, leading to the enormous losses suffered.’
Prosecutors had argued that more than £4million could be clawed back from Ames, which was just one per cent of the cash made from the scheme.
Making an order of just over £283,000, judge Hehir acknowledged: ‘I am acutely conscious that the available amount I have found is a yet tinier fraction of that.
‘I appreciate that my findings will be scant consolation to David Ames’ many victims: indeed, they may well regard them as providing the very opposite of consolation.’
Ames faces another three years in prison if he fails to return the money within three months.
One investor, who lost in excess of £50,000 to the scheme, was at a loss when they were told about the confiscation order.
‘I cannot believe that is it. How could Ames and his family just spent it all?’ they said.
‘Many victims have received almost no compensation, and to hear that less than 0.1 per cent of what they made from one of the biggest frauds in British history is being scraped back from Ames is simply mind boggling. I refuse to accept it.’
The Mail’s hit podcast series Heists, Scams and Lies podcast lifted the lid on the shocking case
The Mail’s podcast series Heists, Scams and Lies podcast lifted the lid on the shocking case, revealing for the first time that property guru Phil Spencer lost a vast amount of his own money to the fraud.
The podcast also revealed that the Ames family hired private investigators to spy on journalists who reported the operation was crumbling.
Ames, described as a ‘Walter Mitty character,’ sold unbuilt villas, apartments and hotel developments in St Vincent, Barbados, Brazil, St Lucia and the Dominican Republic.
Of the 8,200 properties sold to investors, fewer than 200 were ever built.
Ames and his family took more than £6.2million from the scheme.
The thrice-bankrupt businessman denied fraud but during his trial offered no defence other than simply showing jurors a promotional video featuring the song ‘Under the Sea’ from the Disney film The Little Mermaid.
Paul Napper, Head of the Proceeds of Crime division at the Serious Fraud Office, which ran the investigation into Harlequin, said: ‘Ames took multiple steps to hide the profits of his audacious fraud – a crime funded by thousands of people’s life savings and pensions.
‘Our specialist team uncovered his multiple assets, hidden across the globe, and today’s result is a first step in ensuring Ames does not profit from his crimes.’