Jail for career conman from Cambridgeshire who tricked his way into jobs and stole thousands

A career conman who regularly changed his name by deed poll to con companies out of hundreds of thousands of pounds has been jailed for more than eight years.

Simon Squires, 49, went by several other names such as Simon Ball and Simon Brown in an attempt to evade justice, and made fake CVs to get jobs with new companies before taking money from the firms for himself.

Squires, of Highfields Caldecote in Cambridgeshire, was first jailed in 2013 and again in 2017 for defrauding his victims out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.   

But as soon as he was out of jail, he continued offending.

Between 2018 and 2020 he used a CV containing fake information to get senior jobs at two different companies, changing his name by deed poll so that employers would not uncover his previous criminal record.

An investigation was launched by Cambridgeshire Police and Squires was arrested and charged with fraud offences, before being released on bail.

This did not deter Squires and he continued his deception, this time under the alias of Matthew Ball.

He fraudulently got a job as a chief commercial director at a personal care product company in Norfolk, before moving on to a technology company in Oxford.

Once in post, he would use his position to reward himself financially while causing substantial losses to the businesses. In total he claimed around £110,000 from the companies.

In February 2022 he was arrested by officers from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) and subsequently pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation, four counts of money laundering, and 10 breaches of a Serious Crime Prevention Order which he received following his 2017 conviction.

He was jailed for eight years and nine months at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday and a Proceeds of Crime Act investigation has now been launched, to ensure that Squires does not profit from his actions.

While passing the sentence, the judge described Squires as "a serious danger to honest business people", said Cambridgeshire Police.

Around £30,000 in his bank account has been frozen and a number of watches believed to be worth more than £100,000 have been seized, while financial investigations take place.

The investigation was led by ERSOU’s Proactive Economic Crime Team, a new team funded by both the Home Office and the City of London Police which will target fraud and economic crime across the eastern region.

PC Kane Casburn, investigating officer, said: “Squires made a career out of defrauding businesses out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, lying and cheating his way into senior positions.

“He clearly thought he was above the law and continued to deceive company after company, even while on court bail for other fraud offences."