A CHESTER hotelier who lost his entire life savings of more than £100,000 following a callous insurance scam has said his life has been shattered.


The two masterminds of the £1 million fraud that destroyed the hopes and dreams of Roger Price, 64, who runs the Elms Hotel and Restaurant, on Sealand Road, have now been jailed for more than 10 years between them.
 

Neil McKay, 44, and Faron Wilson, 40, posed as respectable insurance brokers and tricked more than 100 victims into using their services.
 

Instead of providing them with the promised policies, they simply pocketed the premiums for themselves.
 

They kept the five-year fraud going by paying out on smaller claims, but left their customers exposed to huge losses on larger payouts.
 

Mr Price, of Lache, Chester, ended up losing £100,000 following lengthy legal proceedings when he thought he had been insured.
 

The losses were incurred after a customer was knocked to the floor by his playful puppy following a night out at the venue.
 

McKay was jailed for four years and four months, while Wilson received a six-year prison sentence at Southwark Crown Court.
 

Judge Deborah Taylor told them: “Customers were left with the risk of very real losses to themselves or their businesses.
 

“This was a high-value, planned, substantial confidence fraud involving multiple victims over a five-year period, and committed out of greed.
 

“Only a substantial custodial sentence is appropriate. The long period of the offending, the substantial risks to many victims and the lasting effects on the victims are all aggravating features.”
 

The judge added that when the matter comes before the court again for an application to seize the defendants’ assets, compensation for the victims including Mr Price would take precedence.
 

Speaking outside the court after the sentence was passed, Mr Price, said: “I’m glad I came. You can’t go defrauding people like that.
 

“For eight years we’ve had it hanging over us. We’re ordinary working people. It’s put years on me.”
 

McKay and Wilson ran the fraud through their Chorley-based firm Ideal Insurance, over a five-year period from 2003 to 2008.
 

Victims were shown ‘wholly bogus’ policy documents to convince them that they had taken out genuine insurance.
 

Mr Price was left without insurance and ended up having to pay a total of £107,000 including legal costs following a county court judgement.
 

McKay, who the court heard played the greater role in the fraud of the two defendants, personally took £698,000 out of the business, while Wilson took £314,000.
 

A further £200,000 was withdrawn in cash, and is still unaccounted for.
McKay, of Ormskirk, Lancs, admitted conspiracy to defraud between May 20, 1997 and October 1, 2007, while Wilson, of Bury, denied the same charge.


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ROGER Price told the Leader how he lost all his savings after years of expensive legal wrangling after being duped by the fraudsters.
Mr Price swapped insurance brokers from Clear Insurance to Ideal Insurance in 2003, attracted by Ideal’s cheaper premiums and the fact that he could talk directly to the owners of the business.
He and his sister Esther Mary Bradley, 66, who acted as bookkeeper for the Elms, said they trusted Ideal. When the claim was made, Mr Price called Ideal, who reassured him that they would handle it.
“I thought Ideal were dealing with it and were completely trustworthy. Every time I called, we got placated,” the hotelier said.
Unknown to Mr Price, Ideal had no intention of handling the claim. The next year the claimant had a private operation, costing £3,000.
Mr Price kept calling Ideal, who kept promising to pay, but a bailiff turned up at the Elms without warning looking to take goods worth £3,000. Mr Price got the bailiff to call Ideal, who reassured her, and the bailiff went away.
When the case eventually got to court in 2008, Mr Price followed Ideal’s advice and didn’t attend. Unknown to him, Ideal didn’t turn up either. He said the case went undefended and the prosecution had a field day.
He lost the case, and was faced with a bill for £41,500. Ideal eventually paid the £3,000 for the operation, but Mr Price was still left with a massive financial burden.
Mr Price was told he had three weeks to pay before bailiffs turned up at his house.
Afraid of losing his home, he took the case to an appeal in Chester Civil Court in 2008 and won. The judge ruled that he should not have to pay.
But the claimant’s solicitors reappealed, and the case went to the High Court in London.
This time, Mr Price lost the case. Even after hiring a costs draftsman to cut the legal fees, he was faced with a bill of more than £100,000.
Mr Price had to borrow money, use his own savings and rely on loans from friends and family to meet the costs. He nearly lost everything.
“There’s no way we can retire,” he said. “It has really shattered our lives. I never thought anything like this could snowball into such a big thing.”