Marios Lourides was the former finance directors of the Jongleurs comedy clubs, and ran an elaborate ponzi scheme with fellow director Mark Ablitt. Using their Singapore based company, Sears Morgan, the duo duped investors into parting with funds to finance an elaborate ponzi scheme involving £60m in property deals.

Lourides was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a 10-year director disqualification after being found guilty at Kingston Crown Court on 28 November. Ablitt had been sentenced to 10 years, reduced to six years and nine months due to his guilty plea at an earlier trial in 2018.

Judge Georgina Kent said Lourides had ‘a very comfortable lifestyle’, sending his children to private school, buying luxury cars and investing in other business interests.

‘They trusted you with their savings and you squandered their money on high living and gambling,’ said the Judge.

Accountant Lourides used the comedy club to launder money via a ponzi scheme to defraud investors out of up to £30m. A police investigation identified 18 victims who invested approximately £10m, but it is likely more people were affected.

The scheme involved persuading investors to invest their money in a bank in Singapore with very high interest rates and no risk to the investors’ money. Lourides dealt with the affairs in the UK, but the money did not ever go to Singapore as it was stolen by Lourides and spent on business costs.

The two ran the scheme from 2012 to 2018 but Lourides was described as the head of the operation.

This is the second time this case has gone to trial after a Judge’s mistake in the first trial triggered a retrial. The original trial was in 2018 and both defendants were also found guilty then.

Lourides was also suspended from practicing by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 2016 to ‘protect the public’.

Recovery of some of the money will start next year.