Fraudster fleeced victims of £250,000 in elaborate eBay scam before fleeing to South America with prostitute girlfriend
Marcus Elliot, 26, jailed for scam which saw him spend stolen cash on expensive speedboats, cigars and even a Playboy membership
A FRAUDSTER who fleeced victims out of £250,000 before fleeing to South America with his prostitute girlfriend and splurging it on a 'Champagne lifestyle' has been jailed.
Marcus Elliot, 26, leased shipping containers and claimed he would rent them to the public - but sold them on eBay and pocketed the cash instead.
He spent the cash on his lavish lifestyle, enjoying luxury meals, buying expensive speedboats, cigars and even a Playboy membership.
He was rumbled by the authorities after he stopped paying his monthly bill to one firm they investigated before discovering he had fled to South America.
He was finally arrested on his return to the UK last year where he admitted four counts of fraud between January 2012 and March 2014.
Elliot, of North Scarle, Lincolnshire, was jailed for three years and 10 months at Derby Crown Court on Friday.
Sentencing, Judge Jonathan Bennett said: "You were the director, you were the organiser and this was fraudulent from the outset.
"It went on for a long period of time and there were a large number of victims.
"One of your victims leased 100 units to you and when you stopped paying him the monthly rent of them, he visited Hilton where there were only 29 as you had sold the others.
"He was expecting to see 100 units and you could not be found.
"In fact no-one could find you after that because you gallivanted off to South America with someone and having the time of your life on their money."
Elliot set up Hilton Self-Storage Ltd with Dave Billings, who is still running a 'perfectly legitimate' business from there now.
The court heard Elliot contacted three different companies, Spacewise UK Ltd, Mr Box and Grand View UK Ltd, who agreed to lease the containers to him.
He said he would pay a fixed monthly fee and lease them on to members of the public who were looking for secure storage.
In total, he defrauded Spacewise UK Ltd of £77,525.31; Mr Box of £17,435.97 and Grand View of £36,989.69.
Prosecutor Nadia Silva said: "The final count relates to members of the public where he simply sold members of the public containers that simply did not exist. `
"He was selling the units online for something in the region of £2,000 each through a company he set up called mycontainer.co.uk using eBay and online auction sites.
"Customers would buy the containers from him and he simply would not deliver them.
"He even used the same invoice number on eight different transactions and when people contacted him asking where their units were he would give excuses such as there being an unprecedented demand or transportation difficulties."
Mrs Silva said one victim was defrauded out of £22,800 by Elliot and another of £8,800.
She said: "Late in 2014, the mother of a former school friend of Mr Elliot's approached him about buying a storage unit for £1,200 and he made her pay the money into his personal savings account."
The total value of the fraud was £252,653.97.
Mrs Silva said: "In just a short time period, between September 2012 and January 2013, he spent £73,000 in foreign travel, purchased a speedboat which he later crashed and abandoned and spent £28,000 on an escort who accompanied him on an extended trip to South America.
"Downloads from his computer showed photographic images of him living a cash rich lifestyle, pictures of him on the speedboat, expensive boxes of cigars, a membership card for Playboy, stacks of bank notes."
Kevin Toomey, defending, said: "He extended himself far beyond what he was capable of doing (due to) his mother's illusions and his friend's illusions he could replace his father in the household.
"Mr Elliot is still only 26, he was 20 when he started his businesses.
"He has caused great shame on his family. He has two older brothers who have good standing and a mother who has great standing in the community.
"She is very, very upset at what her son has done.
"He made mistake after mistake and told lie after lie and he accepts that.
"He knows he is going to prison and he knows the effect that will have on his mother and the very small community in which he lives."
Speaking after sentencing, DC Paul Robinson, who led the investigation, said: "On a day of Remembrance we are seeing the exact opposite of young men and women who proudly serve our country compared to the arrogance and greed of Elliot.
"He deliberately set out to defraud both businesses and individuals with no thought whatsoever of his actions.
"The champagne lifestyle he led was funded on other people's misery, using stolen cash and flaunting photographs of cash and luxury goods."
Sharon Rimell, sales manager at Spacewise UK Ltd, almost lost her job over the fraud she suffered at the hands of Elliott.
She said: "I got to know him and like him, he put time into creating a business friendship between us, but then abused the trust that I placed in him to commit this fraud.
"I have been there every step of the way over the past three years. I almost lost my job,
"I lost money and spent time at weekends with my husband's help searching for lost units.
"Even today he has displayed complete arrogance towards me and has never once apologised for what he has done to me."
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His former business partner in Hilton, Dave Billings, said: "When I met up with Marcus it seemed the perfect partnership, I would supply the land, Marcus would supply the containers and we would run the company Hilton Self Storage Ltd together.
"It all went well to start with and the business was gradually building up, until I got concerned about some of his spending habits.
"The decision was made to let him carry on with the business and just rent the land to him which seemed the only option I had with it being on my land.
"After all these criminal actions had come out I decided to take it all back on myself under my own new company Hilton storage Ltd.
"As soon as I took control of my site again customers seemed delighted, the customer base has tripled and I am looking at expanding again with more storage units and the caravan storage has been full all this year with a waiting list.
"All this business needed was a bit of time to get going which sadly M. Elliot didn't seem to want to give it.
"When it all happened, I was left in a very stressful situation.
"I had to find a lot of money to buy the remaining containers on site to show goodwill to Spacewise."
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