Lincolnshire fraudster jailed
A former director of a Lincolnshire-based investment firm, Imperial Consolidated Group, has been sentenced for his part in a multi-million pound global fraud conspiracy. William Godley, who admitted his part in the £250m scam, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.
Godley, 62, of Hampshire, was charged in 2006 with a single count of conspiracy to defraud in an internationally promoted scheme that attracted more than £250m from about 3,000 investors.
Investors believed their money would be used to finance a commercial loans business from which they would gain interest, Blackfriars Crown Court heard. The fraud operated from premises on a former RAF station at Binbrook in Lincolnshire.
According to the Serious Fraud Office, Godley was paying himself up to £61,000 per month net of tax during one period of the fraud.
In addition to his prison sentence, Godley was forbidden to act as a company director for the next six years.
