Property guru Phil Spencer today reveals for the first time that he lost a vast amount of his own money to one of Britain’s biggest ever fraud cases in a new Daily Mail podcast.
The television presenter put his name to a £400million Caribbean property scheme, appearing in promotional videos that helped convince many victims to part with their life savings.
More than 8,000 British buyers sank their hard-earned money into the failed Harlequin operation hoping to get a slice of paradise.
You can listen to the first episode of Heists, Scams and Lies: The Lost Caribbean Millions by clicking the player below or here
It was backed by Spencer and the likes of Liverpool Football Club and international sporting legends including Andy Townsend and Pat Cash.
But today Mr Spencer reveals he was himself a victim – and tells the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast he ‘massively regrets’ ever getting involved.
He admitted he invested his own cash into the project after being ‘misled’ by its founder – who is now serving a 12-year prison sentence for fraud.
The Location, Location, Location star told the Daily Mail podcast, which launches today: ‘I massively regret getting involved in any way with the Harlequin scheme.
‘I was completely misled by the senior team on site and consequently, along with all other investors, I lost a large amount of money investing in something which never materialised.’
A source close to the Mr Spencer said the experience had been ‘horrendous’ for him.
The second series of the hit Heists, Scams and Lies, which has previously revealed the secrets behind the Ecclestone diamond heist, lifts the lid on the extraordinary tale of how a twice-bankrupt double glazing salesman from Basildon built up a £1.2billion house of cards in paradise.
David Ames, 73, the mastermind behind Harlequin, was jailed in 2022 after being convicted of defrauding investors who ploughed £398million into his schemes – many of them elderly people who invested their pension pots.
Ames, described as a ‘Walter Mitty character,’ sold unbuilt villas, apartments and hotel developments in St Vincent, Barbados, Brazil, St Lucia and the Dominican Republic.
Liverpool FC planned a training base at one resort, tennis ace Pat Cash opened a coaching centre on St Vincent and Player was designing an exclusive golf course at the St Lucia development, which would include a hotel named after him.
But behind the scenes, there were vast levels of profligacy with investor cash.
Ames spent a million pounds on sand that was dumped on the rocky beach at Buccament Bay in St Lucia.
‘That lasted about as long as the tide before it was all washed away,’ Serious Fraud Office case controller John McCarroll told the Heists, Scams and Lies podcast.
Roughly half a million pounds was wasted on building a pirate galleon in Indonesia which sprung a leak then caught fire while being transported to the resort before being dumped in a warehouse then eventually destroyed by a hurricane.
Ames even tried to establish his own airline, Harlequin Air, which would move clients around the islands – but this never got off the ground.
Ames was banned from being a company director due to his bankruptcies, so the business was in the name of his wife, Carol, 74, and son, Dan.
Independent financial advisers were paid up to £3million in commissions to sell the scheme, which involved paying £1,000 deposits then 30 per cent of the total purchase price with promises of earning £20,000 rental incomes.
Many investors took advantage of new rules allowing the self-investment of their pension pots or used their lifetime savings.
When rumours began to spread that Harlequin was failing, investors and journalists were sent threatening letters from top London legal firms.
The Ames family also hired a private detective to spy on a reporter from the Basildon Echo who was investigating the operation, the podcast reveals.
By 2011, Ames was advised that his business plan was unviable and he was operating at a £1.2billion deficit but he continued to recruit investors.
Construction began at just one of the Harlequin resorts, and it transpired that the builders, ICE Group, conned Ames out of more than £8million.
And the businessman’s accountant, Martin MacDonald, a partner at Wilkins Kennedy, became so close to the building firm’s boss Paudie O’Halloran that he agreed to be his best man.
A London judge ordered Wilkins Kennedy to pay £9million compensation because of his negligence in overseeing the work.
Prosecutors said the operation had become a pyramid scheme, as three properties needed to be sold to build just one of the units.
Of the 8,200 properties sold to investors, fewer than 200 were ever built. Ames and his family took more than £6.2million from the scheme.
Ames denied fraud but during his trial offered no defence other than simply showing jurors a promotional video featuring the song ‘Under the Sea’ from the Disney film The Little Mermaid.
He was convicted on two counts, and was described by the sentencing judge as ‘a menace to anyone who was to do business with you.’
New episodes of Heists, Scams and Lies: The Lost Caribbean Millions drop weekly.
Can’t wait? Join The Crime Desk for instant access to the full series. Visit thecrimedesk.com.
