Nicolas Levene jailed for 13 years for £32m Ponzi fraud - Telegraph.co.uk

He said the scale of the fraud appeared to be "unprecedented", adding: "The sums are staggering enough but what is even less attractive is that it has involved so many acts and moments of betrayal of people who were not just clients but many of whom clearly believed they were your friends."

Quoting from a letter written to the court by Levene's father, the judge said: "It is perhaps what your father wrote that struck me as much as anything.

"He described yours as a lifestyle beyond comprehension and understanding explained only by that monster, greed. It is that to which you were truly addicted."

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC said Levene carried out a "classic" Ponzi fraud, where returns are paid to investors from other savers' money or their own rather than legitimate profits.

"In fact Mr Levene made very little effort to invest money on behalf of his clients and treated the sums he received in effect as his own, using them for whatever purpose he considered at the time to be the most pressing," he said.

Mr Edis added: "He looked after his own lifestyle, schools, houses, yachts, and so forth, and gambled with what was left."

The fraud was ended when investors began proceedings against Levene that resulted in his arrest and bankruptcy.

Mr Caring did not provide a prosecution statement to the Serious Fraud Office's investigators, but Levene was charged with false accounting relating to two payments totalling £10 million made to him by the restaurateur, the court heard.

Trevor Burke QC, defending, said Levene had enjoyed a very successful career over many years but blew a fortune when he became addicted to gambling.

"It was not only other people's money that was lost as a result of his activities, he lost a very substantial sum of his own," he said.

Levene, of Barnet, Hertfordshire, admitted 12 counts of fraud, one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception and one count of false accounting.

The son of a north London electrician, he became a broker at a series of companies and once worked alongside Nicola Horlick, the City "superwoman", at her investment fund Bramdean Asset Management.

He gambled huge sums, reportedly losing £720,000 on a cricket game in 2008 and £250,000 when Chelsea failed to win the Premiership in 2008–09.

In 2009 he laid on a party for one of his sons in a marquee beside the Thames in London featuring a live performance by the girl group The Saturdays.