A British former financial advisor, who conned clients out more than £2 million in order to fund his online gambling addiction, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for theft, forgery and money laundering.
48-year-old Philip Smith, from Bowdon, Cheshire conned as many as 50 victims. He was described as manipulative and dishonest by Judge Peter Lakin at Manchester Crown Court: "As a financial adviser, your clients trusted you to handle their financial affairs with integrity and honesty. You breached that trust placed in you in a cold and calculated way. You deliberately targeted elderly and vulnerable people. This was dishonesty on a truly breathtaking scale."
Smith hid the money in offshore bank accounts. He admitted 49 counts of theft, two counts of false accounting, five accounts of money laundering and three counts of forgeries earlier this year.
Among Smith's his victims were his clients, friends and even his own brother. He convinced his clients to hand over their credit card details, which he then used to set up online betting accounts.
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