Worries remain for fraud victims

Gambling 'IOU bank thief' jailed

Victims of Graham Price's theft have expressed their "satisfaction" at his 12 year jail sentence but said their financial worries were not over.

Graham Price, 58, of Llansamlet was jailed for 12 years for stealing £10ms from investors and the Halifax Bank for whom he was an agent.

One of the investors, Jennifer Ellis, read a statement on behalf of his victims.

She said Price breached the trust of his friends, colleagues and neighbours.

Speaking on behalf of the Graham Price Victims' Support Groups, she said: "It is right and proper that Graham Price has been duly punished for what he did to so many people.

"However, today does not mark the end of our ordeal. Not only have many of us lost our life savings but some of us are now facing demands from the Halifax Bank for the return of interest payments made to us.

I still think it's some sort of a dream and I'm going to wake up Marilyn Matthewson, ex-employee who lost £39,000

"Those of us who have not yet received such demands worry constantly that we will also be targeted by the Halifax.

"We are sickened that the Halifax has decided to take this course of action, particularly after we have suffered so much at the hands of this man."

Marilyn Matthewson, who worked for Price for two-and-a-half years and lost £39,000, said: "I still can't believe it.

"I still think it's some sort of a dream and I'm going to wake up."

Judge John Diehl said that the Halifax had moved swiftly to freeze his assets and recoup what they could.

Since then financial experts working for the bank had taken back £2.3m worth of assets which Price had disposed of in a number of ways.

An audit failed to pick up £456,000 stolen by Price

Among them was £500,000 found in a bank account belonging to his son, £100,000 in a bank account belonging to his wife, £110,000 in premium bonds and a fortune in a company share portfolio.

But the judge said of the victims: "Now they're left in a state of considerable uncertainty as to whether they face possible claims from the Halifax."

Price had paid out £1.8m to some of his victims because he had promised returns on their investment. But some of this money had come from new investors to the scheme and the rest he stole from the Halifax.

The Halifax said Price had operated "two separate and distinct businesses" at Gowerton - Graham J Price & Co, a financial consultancy, and a Halifax local agency.

In a statement, the bank said Price had also stolen a "considerable amount" of money from the bank.

'Freak mischance'

Within his financial consultancy, Price offered investment accounts which claimed returns of up to 270% interest annually. The Halifax said it had no knowledge of these until the fraud was discovered by an audit.

The bank added: "It was clear from documents used by Price that the relationship was exclusively between him and his private clients.

"All of the losses Mr Price's clients have suffered are as a result of their being attracted by his unfounded and fraudulent claims of his own risk-free property investment scheme."

It also claimed that cash apparently paid into the Halifax accounts of Price's victims was, in fact, never credited to them at all.

In two cases, victims had removed money which did not exist and they had since been contacted and asked to pay it back.

The court heard that by a "freak mischance" a bank audit failed to pick up a deficit of £456,000, 15 months before Price was caught.