Ex-Charlton Athletic footballer Richard Rufus jailed for £8m investment scam

A former footballer has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after tricking his family and friends into investing more than £8 million in a foreign currency exchange scam.

Richard Rufus, 48, who is a former Charlton Athletic player, convinced those close to him that the investments would be low risk and high return. Instead he spent hundreds of thousands of pounds funding his own lifestyle

He used his status as a former sportsman to give the impression he was wealthy and successful, when in reality he was failing to make a profit from the trading activities.

In reality he was failing to make a profit from his trading activities and was using his victims’ money to reimburse those who had paid in as part of a pyramid scheme.

Of the £15 million paid to accounts controlled by Rufus, investors received back a total of around £7.6 million.

The scheme ran from May 2007 to the end of 2010. City of London Police say as a result of it, relationships and loyalties between friends had been shattered and many suffered financial and mental health difficulties.

Rufus spent around £300,000 on his own lifestyle – including payments for travel, car finance, restaurants and shopping.

He was found guilty of four counts of fraud by false representation, money laundering and one count of carrying out a regulated activity without authorisation, following a four-week trial, police said.

He was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday to seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.

Detective Constable Claire Sandford-Day, from the fraud operations team at the City of London Police, said Rufus “(made) it appear that he was leading a life of wealth as a result of his former career and investments”.

“Rufus deliberately deceived those who were close to him and those who trusted him to scam them out of substantial sums of money,” she said.

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