A former accountant from Ashford who persuaded a client to lend him £151,000 has been given an 18-month jail sentence after being found guilty of fraud, having been scammed himself by a love interest he met online
Canterbury Crown Court heard that 79-year-old Brian Ridpath had known his victim, a local company director, for 10 years and had been his trusted accountant.
The director had no hesitation in giving Ridpath a loan of £30,000 in November 2014, so he could help a friend who he claimed was doing business with the Nigerian government and needed the cash to pay import fees.
Over the next two months, he subsequently provided further loans bringing the total handed over to £151,000. However, the company director became suspicious when no money was repaid to him despite asking Ridpath on many occasions, and contacted Kent Police.
Officers carried out a search warrant at Ridpath’s home and work addresses in May 2015 and seized laptops, an external hard drive, a mobile phone and a desktop computer.
Following an investigation by Kent Police officers, Ridpath was charged with fraud by false representation.
The court heard evidence that Ridpath had been sending money to a woman called Lisa Johnson, based in Nigeria, with whom he had been in regular contact online. Email exchanges between the pair indicated the accountant believed Johnson to be in danger from various sources and needing cash to extricate herself, and responded with offers to help, telling his client that she was a business partner looking for funding.
At the trial, the accountant was asked by Judge Simon James: ‘Has he ever met this woman - yes or no?’
In response, Ridpath’s lawyer told the judge: ‘No. Only in the sense of having met online.’
At sentencing, the judge said to Ridpath: ‘I don’t know whether you are deluded or have been totally taken in. This offence was initially borne out by a combination of naivety and exploitation. It is clear to me if not to you, that you were targeted by fraudsters who used you quite cynically.
‘But so complete were your delusions you became blinded to the fact that you were being manipulated after becoming fixated by a woman half your age who you had never met.’
‘I am pleased with the outcome which serves as a warning that crime does not pay. It should also serve as a warning to others that fraudsters come in all forms including people in position of trust.’
