Bogus English Lord Convicted In Massive Fraud Scheme

Bogus peer Hugh Rodley tried to pull off world’s biggest bank raid

(John Stillwell/PA)
Hugh Rodley: enjoyed all the trappings of the British aristocracy
David Brown
A fake British aristocrat was convicted yesterday of playing a leading role in an audacious attempt to carry out the world’s biggest bank raid.

The gang of international criminals came close to stealing £229 million from a City bank by exploiting the high-tech security measures designed to protect money transfers. But the plot failed when a hacker into the system missed one set of numbers from an electronic form.

Hugh Rodley — who insisted on being addressed as “Lord” despite having bought his manorial title — was the front man for the group, setting up companies and bank accounts to receive and launder the money.

Details of the “bold and sophisticated” attack were untangled by the Serious Organised Crime Agency during a four-year investigation.

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Kevin O’Donoghue, the head of security at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, claimed that in 2004 he was forced to let two Belgian computer hackers into the Japanese bank’s City headquarters after threats to his family. Gilles Poelvoorde and Jan Van Osselaer installed spy software on executives’ computers that recorded their log-ins and passwords.

Meanwhile, Rodley, 61, from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, was creating the web of international companies stretching from the Seychelles to Spain. To help him, he used David Nash, 47, a sex-shop owner from Durrington, West Sussex.

After months of preparation, the Belgian hackers returned to Sumitomo’s offices in October 2004. They made 21 transfers of up to £40 million each from the accounts of high-profile customers including Casio, Toshiba and Nomura Asset Management. The money was destined for accounts in Spain, Dubai, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Turkey, Israel, Turkey and Singapore.

Rodley then attempted to transfer the stolen money out of the recipient accounts and on to banks in countries including northern Cyprus and the Seychelles, unaware that the Belgians had made a mistake in the Swift money transfer system.

Rodley was convicted yesterday at Snaresbrook Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to transfer criminal property. Nash was convicted of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. Another defendant, Inger Malmros, 58, a Swedish businesswoman who lived in the Canary Islands, was cleared of all charges.

O’Donoghue, 33, Van Osselaer, 32, and Poelvoorde, 34, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal. All will be sentenced at a later date.

Other members of the plot have not been caught and are known to have carried out similar attacks abroad. Among those who are suspected of being involved are the Eastern European mafia and a Middle Eastern sheikh.

Rodley was the perfect front man for the plot. He enjoyed all the trappings of the rural aristocracy, with a £2 million Gloucestershire home surrounded by five acres of gardens, riding stables, a Rolls-Royce and an office in Mayfair.

Rodley, his wife, known as “Lady” Pamela, and their daughters, Natasha and Natalie, are prominent figures in the British Morgan Horse Society and frequently take part in riding competitions. Even Rodley’s 15-year dispute with neighbours over a leylandii hedge is quintessentially Middle England.

But behind the respectability was a lifetime of fraud. Born Brian McGough in Ireland in 1947, he is a bankrupt with a long criminal record for offences including forgery and obtaining property by deception.

During the plot against Sumitomo, Rodley was seen by undercover police officers meeting a member of the Adams crime family, which has amassed tens of millions of pounds from drugs and extortion. Rodley later admitted meeting Tommy Adams, 48, but insisted that they were involved in legitimate diamond dealing.

In early 2004 Rodley and Nash travelled to Antwerp in Belgium to buy £300,000 worth of diamonds. Rodley was acting on behalf of an Arab businessman and a “wealthy Swiss banker”. He was due to use £200,000 taken from a bank account belonging to the Austrian Embassy in London.

But the pair returned to London empty-handed, claiming that the funds had not arrived in Antwerp. They were met with violent threats and Nash, the owner of a sex shop in Soho, fled to Florida with his children.

In August 2004 Rodley travelled to Kiev, Ukraine, with another British businessman to meet others involved in the Sumitomo plot, the court was told. He also used fake cheques in an attempt to steal £45,120 from the English National Ballet and £35,399 from Casio.

The businessman even scammed Nash, spending more than £27,000 on credit and store cards by stealing his friend’s identity. One account at Harrods was used to buy riding tack for his daughters.

But in the end those Rodley had used for the money-laundering operation turned on him . His long-term business partner, Bernard Davies, who was due to stand trial alongside him, killed himself three days before the start of the trial, leaving a letter to detectives giving details of the Sumitomo plot.

Mr Davies, 74, from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, wrote: “When a partner has done the dirty on you, you put him in the frame.” The wealthy serial conman wished investigating officers well: “Thank you for the way you have treated me, I am very tired, I have lost the will to fight. Good luck.”

HAVE YOUR SAY
I have met these people and still have their business cards somewhere. They were funny old men with a lot of stories and ways to get your money off you . If Robert from Miami wants to make a film - Guy Ritchie can make one for you !
Yeoman, London,
Richard (Cotter,USA)

I believe that the Adams family have now (in the past two years) finally been brought to justice, but it did take the (reluctant?) long arm of the law a very very long time to catch up with them.

David, Nottingham, UK
David Shipman, Nottingham, UK
Brown should give him a role in the cabinet - he would be ideal!
richard sullivan, chislehurst, kent
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