Tenby conman stole £377,000 from victims claiming to invest cash

A "conniving conman" stole £377,000 from friends and associates with bogus promises about investments, a court has heard.

Many of the victims entrusted life savings, pensions, and equity from properties with Darryl Evans who held himself out as a trustworthy financial adviser.

The 62-year-old continued to offend after being arrested and questioned by police by making himself the executor of a will and paying the deceased's estate into his own bank account.

Evans, of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, had previously been found guilty at trial of 27 counts of fraud and theft when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

A judge told Evans he was the most "fundamentally dishonest" person he had encountered in his four decades as a barrister and judge.

Swansea Crown Court heard that over the course of a number of years, Evans took large sums of money off people he knew in the Pembrokeshire area and promised them big returns on their investments.

He told his more than two-dozen victims he was investing their money in algorithms or in high-performing companies - but such claims were a lie, and unemployed Evans was just using the cash to fund his lifestyle.

The court heard some of the victims gave the defendant tens of thousands of pounds in the belief he was investing their money wisely, with some people handing over their savings, parts of their pension pots, or were releasing equity from properties to invest.

In total, Evans took just over £377,000 from his victims. The whereabouts of the missing money remains unknown.

Evans claimed there were no records of the investments he had been making for his clients because the police had destroyed or concealed the documents.

He also claimed many of the investors had given him money knowing he was putting it into a caravan park he was developing - even though he did not own the park and the council had refused planning permission for such a scheme.

Jim Davis, for Evans, said there was little he could say by way of mitigation as the defendant had maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. The barrister said they were his instructions that there are now "no funds".

Judge Paul Thomas KC said that in the 40 years he had been practising as a barrister and sitting as a judge in the criminal courts, he had not come across anyone as "fundamentally dishonest" as the defendant.

He said Evans had "systematically conned people" out of money he knew they could ill-afford to lose and knowing that he "could not or did not intend to repay them".

The judge said during the trial Evans had stood in the witness box and "lied with a fluency that at times was almost breath-taking" as he sought to avoid responsibility for what he had done and to cast aspersions on others, and he described the defendant as a "ruthless and conniving".

The judge said he would sentence Evans on the basis that he was refusing to say where the £377,000 had gone or what had been done with it.

Evans was sentenced to eight years in prison, and will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

A proceeds of crime investigation will now be launched to try to identify where the money has gone.

The judge commended the detective work that brought Evans to the dock, especially the work of lead investigator Dawn Jones, and noted that the defendant had "hindered at all possible stages and all possible ways" the investigation.

Speaking after the sentencing Paul Callard, manager of Dyfed-Powys Police’s economic crime team, said: "What Evans did was a gross breach of his friends’ trust.

"He lied about his profession to gain their respect and confidence, before taking their money on the agreement it would be invested for their benefit.

"While they thought they would profit from this investment, Evans was keeping the money for himself – although despite a number of financial investigations there is no evidence to show what he was spending it on."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know…