Fraudster from Somerset with 37 accounts stole £64k

A MAN who opened 37 bank accounts under different names deprived financial institutions of more than £64,000, a court heard.

Damien Martin James, who has more than 23 aliases, fell back on mortgage repayments and racked up several overdrafts. James used different passports to take out a £250,000 mortgage and open accounts with Lloyds TSB, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland.

After pleading guilty to 10 counts of fraud and two assaults, he was locked up for four years and two months. Overdrafts ranged from £246 to £3,944, prosecutor Stuart Ellacott told the court. James, 45, also kicked the owner of Cuccinis restaurant, in Old Christchurch Road, and he punched the landlord of a hotel – both instances of violence followed being asked to leave the premises.

In mitigation, Robert Grey said James, from Somerset, had turned to drink after his wife’s premature death three years ago.

Judge John Harrow said: “You are a thoroughly dishonest man. You gave false details to the Chelsea Building Society to gain £211,000, fell into arrears and the property had to be sold and there was a loss to them of £60,000.”

Comments(6)

mike in florida says...
6:22pm Sat 28 Jul 12

aid: “You are a thoroughly dishonest man. You gave false details to the Chelsea Building Society to gain £211,000, fell into arrears and the property had to be sold and there was a loss to them of £60,000

sounds likes he brought a flat,like everyone did back then,on a btl mortgage,and when repo came .sold for current market,did not steal £60,000 really did he
just lost any value in house over the period,welcome to real world

chris100 says...
6:53pm Sat 28 Jul 12

GOOD ON HIM
he steals the banks money and gets sent down yet the banks rob our money and they get a nice big fat bonus

billm says...
7:19pm Sat 28 Jul 12

mike in florida wrote:
aid: “You are a thoroughly dishonest man. You gave false details to the Chelsea Building Society to gain £211,000, fell into arrears and the property had to be sold and there was a loss to them of £60,000

sounds likes he brought a flat,like everyone did back then,on a btl mortgage,and when repo came .sold for current market,did not steal £60,000 really did he
just lost any value in house over the period,welcome to real world
He lied to get the loan in the first place. If he'd told the truth they'd have told him where to go. They lost £60,000 because he didn't tell them he had 23 aliases!

winton50 says...
9:42pm Sat 28 Jul 12

chris100 wrote:
GOOD ON HIM
he steals the banks money and gets sent down yet the banks rob our money and they get a nice big fat bonus
Quite right.

Perhaps they should have given him the same treatment that the MPs got.

he should have been allowed to say that he didn't understand the rules and it was all due to an oversight. he could then have apologised and released a statement blaming all the country's ills on single mothers and benefit claimants.

downmoor-ch says...
6:50am Sun 29 Jul 12

Why did he not blame everything on the last Labour government , as every one polititians, and other people seem to do the same these days, the only difference being that he was caught with 23 different Passports, Bankers chief executives have been conning us all for years, and all they get is a very GOLDEN HANDSHAKE!.

itsallgammon says...
12:27pm Sun 29 Jul 12

No sympathy for the Financial Institutions or their grossly over paid employees is there? Could it be (just possibly) that the Great British Public has had enough?

I found it interesting to note that, although the only people he could possibly have hurt were the large Financial Corporations and their shareholders, a custodial sentence was applied. It was a quite significant one too. Now, had he driven a car/van at 80mph, whilst drunk, uninsured and disqualified, run away from a police car he hit and resisted arrest, his sentence would have been suspended (as it actually was!) The fact that he could have maimed or killed several innocent bystanders is clearly not important to the judiciary.

The law protects Big Business, property and "celebrities" who fancy that they have been libelled, but there is nothing for us peasants.

Too much LAW and not enough JUSTICE

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