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| Layezy Racing king and ex-police officer jailed for £44
million betting syndicate scam |
26/09/24 |
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 Editor |
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• 68-year-old from Chatham ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme
• more than 6,000
gamblers invested amounts up to their life savings |
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A former police officer who defrauded members of a horse racing betting syndicate out of millions of
pounds and used their cash to pay for his lavish lifestyle such as Landrovers, racehorses and a villa in Spain has been jailed.
Mike Stanley was
sentenced to six years’ imprisonment following one of the most complex investigations of its nature in the history of Kent Police.
The 68-year-old
from Chatham ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme whereby he convinced more than 6,000 gamblers that his formula for betting on the outcome of horse races would
result in a higher percentage of positive outcomes. In reality he used their funds paid into the scheme for personal gain such as jewellery and private number
plates, Maidstone Crown Court heard.
At his sentencing on Tuesday, it was heard how of the £44 million paid into the scheme there was a
“black hole” loss of £10.5 million to its members, who faced “ruin and financial devastation” following the group’s collapse.
The court heard Stanley used £4 million on personal spending.
The former Kent Police sergeant, 68, pleaded guilty to running the "Ponzi scheme" in
March.
Mr Stanley’s Layezy Racing Club first hit the news in January 2019 when Sportsmail, a section of The Daily Mail, ran a multi page story over
a numner of days highlighting the worries of investors who had not received answers from enquires made.
In April of the year previous Mr Stanley also
started the Layezy Racing Owners Club which cost members £199 per year and quickly gained more than 2,500 customers. That amounts to several million
pounds with close to £2m spent on the purchase and funding of 23 horses that were, although racing under the Layezy Racing Owners Club banner, in fact
registered only to Mr Stanley.
The reality was that Layezy Racing syndicate was failing but Stanley continued to falsely report that the scheme had made
a profit. As such victims believed they had benefitted from successful bets when they were actually receiving money that other members had invested.
It
was later established that the syndicate’s level of success was never sufficient to support the withdrawals members were making or Stanley’s own
extravagant lifestyle, and evidence showed that at one point he had lost over £1 million in gambling in a single year.
Bankruptcy
Stanley, of Resolution Road, Walderslade, filed for bankruptcy in January 2019 shortly after allegations about the legitimacy of the scheme were published
in a national newspaper.
A criminal investigation was launched and it resulted in specialist Kent Police detectives analysing vast amounts of computer
and financial data, and taking witness statements from a large number of affected clients.
Some considered themselves friends of Stanley or had family
ties with him, and many were so convinced by the apparent success of the scheme that they invested their savings, pensions, life insurance pay-outs and other
finances that they could not afford to lose.
In the meantime Stanley was spending their money on a £400,000 property in Spain, several new
vehicles and expensive jewellery, and he also bought £1.6 million of cryptocurrency and £622,000 worth of silver bullion.
He was later
charged with several fraud offences and pleaded guilty to all ahead of his sentencing at Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday 24 September 2024.
Michael
Stanley, from Chatham, pleaded guilty to a series of fraud offences and was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court to six years in jail. In addition to the prison
sentence Stanley was also made subject to a five-year Serious Crime Prevention Order and disqualified from being a company director for 15
years.
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