Man Jailed Over Plot To 'Sell Ritz'

An unemployed lorry driver has been jailed for five years over an "elaborate and outrageous scam" to sell the Ritz Hotel in London for £250 million.

Anthony Lee, 49, from Beal in North Yorkshire duped potential buyer Terence Collins into handing over a £1 million down payment for the famous Mayfair hotel, by posing as a close associate of the hotel's owners, the Barclay Brothers.

However, Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay had never heard of Lee and were unaware that he was claiming to be able to sell the property.

Mr Collins had asked Dutch billionaire Marcus Boekhoorn to finance the £1 million payment in December 2006, telling him that the brothers had "secretive reasons" for selling the Ritz through a third party. However, the sale never happened, no paperwork was produced and the money was never returned.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Lee claimed the £1 million payment was related to a separate property deal he had with Mr Collins and that he had agreed to refer to the payment as a introductory fee for a deal in Flaxby, North Yorkshire, for "accounting reasons".

However, Mr Boekhoorn did not know anything about this arrangement, the court heard.

Lee had been convicted earlier this month of obtaining the money by deception.

At sentencing today Judge Stephen Robbins said: "This con or scam or sting, whatever term is used, was probably motivated by your mistaken belief that Terry Collins had deprived you of another potentially lucrative property deal and it may be that this offence was done out of revenge."

(KMcA/GK)