Last Friday (17 June) Adam Simmons, aged 30 years from East Sussex was ordered to pay back over £191,000 or face spending two years in prison.
Last Friday (17 June) Adam Simmons, aged 30 years from East Sussex was ordered to pay back over £191,000 or face spending two years in prison.
In August 2013, Simmons with a number of others was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering and was jailed for six years.
Adam Simmons, Michael Simmons, John Bishop, Adam Leach and Lee Miller ran UK and Spain-based boiler rooms, operating under the company name ‘No 1 Gems’, which took more than £700,000 from 30 investors.
Victims were led to believe they would make a 20 per cent profit within 12 months by investing in ‘rare’ coloured diamonds, but in reality they were buying gems sold at a mark up of between five and 11 times their true value.
One victim paid £140,000 for diamonds that were worth just £11,000 while another handed over $370,000 for stones that were only worth $22,000.
The gang blew most of the stolen money on a luxury lifestyle of expensive cars, five-star hotels and high-end entertainment.
Detectives got wind of the scam in 2012 when they started seeing a cluster of Action Fraud reports from people anxious about investments they had made in No 1 Gems. Some victims were also concerned that diamonds they had bought for tens of thousands of pounds were being delivered by post.
They uncovered that Adam Simmons was No 1 Gems’ director and was operating out of a boiler room in Hove, Sussex.
Later that year Adam Simmons, Michael Simmons, Leach and Miller were arrested at their Hove office. Michael Simmons was running the finances, Leach acting as the office manager and Miller working as an assistant.
Together the four of them cold-called potential investors, with anyone expressing an interest in their fraudulent scheme being bombarded with further calls from the boiler rooms and receiving glossy brochures promoting the diamonds.
In July 2013 Adam Simmons and Michael Simmons, both of Lion Hill in East Sussex, and Leach of Hambleton Close in Eastbourne were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering, while Miller of Sackville Road in Bexhill-on-Sea pleaded guilty to the same offences.
A month later, at the Old Bailey, the men were jailed for six, three, four and three years and four months respectively. Adam Simmons was also disqualified from operating as a company director.
The investigation team also identified John Bishop as the man running the gang’s Marbella-based boiler room. On seeing the publicity surrounding his fellow fraudsters’ trial Bishop voluntarily returned to the UK in October 2013 and was arrested at City airport.
In August 2014 Bishop, of Queens Road in Felixstowe, was found guilty of the same offences and was later jailed for four years at Woolwich Crown Court.
It was deemed that Simmons made over £191,000 from his involvement in the fraud and he has now been told that he must pay this money back or face further jail time.
