Scam artist who made £13m to fund lavish lifestyle claims he is homeless and can't buy food

A businessman who made more than £13m from his life of crime has told a court how he’s homeless and hasn’t got money to buy food.

Alistair Greig, 71, masterminded a money-spinning Ponzi scheme, which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle.

His scam sucked in dozens of individuals to place their funds in “guaranteed” high-interest accounts.

Jurors found that Greig pocketed more than £13m of cash in the scam.

But Greig used the sums to buy top-of-the-range cars, fancy holiday homes and no expense spared trips to English Premiership matches.

He was found guilty in 2020 and was handed a 14-year jail term which was later reduced to ten years by appeal judges.

Prosecutors later used proceeds of crime legislation to establish that Greig made a total of £13,281,671.25 from criminal activities. Lawyers told judge Lord Braid that Greig only had £814.33 available to seize at that point in time.

“Legislation for proceeds of crime actions states that prosecutors can return to court at any time if they believe that they’ve identified further assets obtained from crime.

“The Crown currently believes it has and is trying to seek to seize more money recently found in a bank account from Greig.

The case was called before Judge Lord Lake on Monday, and Greig represented himself.

He told Lord Lake that the money the Crown reckons was obtained illegally is a pension which was started before he turned to crime.

He says he can’t obtain the money as the bank account is frozen and he told the court that this is having a detrimental impact on his life.

Greig, who says he lives in Boston, Lincolnshire, said: “I’m a homeless person, and I haven’t got any money for food.

“I don’t know how I am going to come back to Edinburgh.”

Greig was unanimously found guilty in 2020 of obtaining £13,281,671.25 by fraud through his scheme between August 2001 and October 2014.

He pretended to investors he would place money for in a short-term deposit scheme with the Royal Bank of Scotland for fixed periods of time.

He was also convicted of breaching financial services and markets legislation and converting and transferring £5.7m in criminal property.

The Crown listed 165 victims of fraud in the indictment brought against Greig, formerly of Cairnbulg, in Aberdeenshire.

He used his ill gotten gains to fund investments in property, including a holiday home in Cornwall, and a classic car business.

He also treated himself to high-end Bentley and Range Rover vehicles and spent lavishly on trips to Old Trafford to see Manchester United and to Cheltenham and Ascot for race meetings.

Prosecution lawyer Steven Borthwick told jurors that Greig used the money entrusted to him as “his own personal slush fund”.

Greig, who has since been made bankrupt in England, told his own clients and advisers that he had access to a high interest account at RBS because of his connections.

But Mr Borthwick said: “The truth of the matter is Alistair Greig had no special relationship with RBS.”

Passing sentence, Lord Tyre said: “The amount that you helped yourself to in order to fund a lavish lifestyle was also extremely large – almost £6m found its way into your own bank accounts.”

The judge said that Greig had operated the fraud over a long period of time.

He said in sentencing the fraudster: “Most of all, I take account of the devastating impact that this fraud has had on a very large number of people, whose trust you deliberately and cruelly betrayed.”

“You knew that the money you obtained from these people was earning nothing. You helped yourself to it whenever you felt like it.”

“Right until the end, you encouraged friends to deposit funds to maintain the pretence, even when you must have known that they would probably lose everything.”

On Monday, Lord Lake continued the case until a hearing, which will be held later this month.