County man: I was duped by fraudsters

The premises at The Case Mill in Ludlow was used by Prudential Commercial Investments - a bogus company set up to fleece British citizens living or working abroad. They were run by 52-year-old David Usher.

Usher, who lived in nearby Market Street, opened bank accounts for the company.

During the 10-week trial at Worcester Crown Court it was revealed that Usher was selected to play a pivotal role in the scam by an old associate, Stanley Rankin.

During the trial Usher admitted his part in opening and running the offices at The Case Mill and that after his arrest he had no other source of income, so moved almost £10,000, with which he opened the account in Spain, to his personal account.

However, Usher insisted that he believed the PCI company was genuine and that the money in the accounts was being loaned or invested in property.

Verdict

He said that he, like the victims and financial advisors, had also been duped by Rankin and the other defendants - Peter Roope and Gareth Matthews, who both pleaded guilty, and Charles Frisby, John Roope and Douglas Miller, who were all convicted.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict in Usher's case and the Crown Prosecution Service will decide later whether to seek a retrial.

It was Rankin who put Usher in touch with Charles Frisby, who was looking after the UK end of the fraud.

Following a meeting in May, 2003, with Peter Roope, the driving force behind the fraud, Usher was dispatched to find offices in Shropshire.

Initially he rented premises at Severn Bridge in Bewdley, but as the victims' money started to roll the fraudsters needed more presentable premises and an account with a prestigious off-shore bank.

Usher found The Case Mill in Ludlow and in June set up an account with Singer & Friedlander in the Isle of Man.

The account was not authorised until October 2003, so Usher had opened an account for PCI at the NatWest branch in Ludlow, where he had his own personal account.

Meanwhile, Roope and Rankin were busy drumming up business for the bogus company by cold-calling financial advisors in Asia and South America.

Rankin, a lorry driver from Merseyside who posed as a self-styled financial advisor, had been based in Northern Cyprus for several years.

In August, 2003, as the PCI scam was taking off, 56-year-old Rankin was shot dead at his luxury villa in Kyrenia by one of his ex-pat neighbours.

It followed a dispute with 70-year-old fellow Briton Christopher Boak, who was arrested and charged with murder.

Directors

The neighbour was later cleared of murder, but jailed for six years after the court in Cyprus accepted the shooting was an accident.

Within days of Rankin's death the PCI fraudsters had flown to Cyprus for an emergency meeting.

As Rankin and Usher were the two named directors of the bogus PCI company, Usher had to make one of Rankin's associates in Cyprus, a man named Murat Soyer, a power of attorney for the accounts on the island.

By now, as quickly as the victims' cash was flowing into the PCI accounts from Asia, South America and Europe, it was being transferred out to accounts controlled by the fraudsters in the UK, the Czech Republic and Northern Cyprus.

In December, 2003, it was decided three financial advisors should be invited on an all-expenses paid trip to the UK which would include a visit to the PCI headquarters - the offices at The Case Mill in Ludlow run by Usher.

It had been furnished with desks, computers, fax machines, phones, pot plants and pictures to create the impression the business was operating from the premises.

Usher was arrested at Manchester Airport in February, 2004, as he returned from Spain where he had opened a new PCI account with Banco Atlantico.

By Arthur Mills