Trio jailed for £1.3m boiler room scam

Three men have been jailed for a combined nine years’ imprisonment after running a boiler room fraud which took over £1.3 million from UK investors.

The operation, based in Spain, saw the men target UK investors between 2009 and 2010, using high-pressure sales techniques to promote worthless share bonds in non-trading companies.

In this case, the three defendants James Muir Baird, Paul O’Leary and Omar Shorif Choudhury pretended these worthless share bonds were shares in Chinese commodities firms.

Between September 2009 and June 2010, the trio persuaded victims to invest over £1,312,550 into the companies whose shares were being pushed.

Payments were made to accounts held in the names of these companies in various countries including Cyprus, the Seychelles, and the United Kingdom. 

However, these bank accounts were controlled by Baird’s associates and the money went to the boiler rooms.

The shares, supposedly from Chinese commodity firms in the process of European-based subsidiaries, were non-trading shell companies controlled by Baird and associates, and actually had no link to the Chinese firms.

The Serious Fraud Office said: ‘Money paid to the boiler room operation was not used to fund commercial activities but, instead, supported the lavish lifestyle of Baird and the boiler-room employees.’

Baird and his cohorts also gave a fictitious address, claiming they were based in Canary Wharf.

To avoid the attention of law enforcement bodies the boiler room regularly had a change of name.  Initially it was called IGM Securities and then in 2010 it adopted the names WA Advisory and MS Securities.