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Gem Shevket: 'I had no power over that office' |
Fraud trial hears millionaire deny giving
£2,500 gift to estate agent
‘I would have given some wine,’ says businessman who advised global investor Soros
ONE of the world’s most successful financial investors appeared as a witness in a fraud trial on Friday to reject claims that he gave a gift of money to an estate agent accused of fraud.
Malcolm Green, 39, who is alleged to have swindled about £500,000 of savings, shares and jewellery from a vulnerable client, said he was used to receiving gifts from happy customers after the completion of property deals.
In interviews with the police, he said Nick Roditi – a millionaire who has acted as a financial adviser to global investor George Soros – had given £25,000 to help him with his business, Greenfields estate agency in Heath Street, Hampstead.
Mr Green claims that his alleged victim, Marshall Davis, a schizophrenic, gave him money and shares as well.
But Mr Roditi appeared in the witness box at Snaresbrook Crown Court for 15 minutes and said that, while he had done business with Mr Green, he had never given any money as a gift.
He told the court: “I would have given Mr Green some wine. It’s a habit we have. I own a winery. My guess is that I went into his office, which is close to mine. He wasn’t there and I left the wine.
“He did a good job. If I had felt there was anything untoward going on I wouldn’t have had anything to do with him.”
Mr Green’s lawyer, Edward Henry, told Mr Roditi that he was a “very experienced” businessman and said he must have found the call to give evidence in the trial “grubby and embarrassing”.
Mr Henry suggested that he had in fact given Mr Green a financial gift, although the sum was actually £2,500. Mr Roditi said: “I absolutely refute that.”
Mr Roditi’s appearance in court was the latest twist in a case which is now in its fifth week of evidence.
Mr Green and his co-accused, Gem Shevket, 34, who used to work at Greenfields, both deny all charges of conspiracy, dishonest money transfer and theft.
They are accused of conning Mr Davis, a schizophrenic, after he came into the office with a view to selling his family home in Dunstan Road, Child’s Hill, in April 2004.
They allegedly used made-up names to cover their tracks and told him he would be investing in a development in Monte Carlo.
It is alleged they also coaxed Mr Davis into bogus property deals with a “ludicrous” promise of £500 billion profits and stole his jewellery and his dead brother’s rare stamp collection.
Mr Shevket’s defence began on Thursday when he claimed he had only been an employee at Greenfields for a short time and had grown suspicious of Mr Green’s activities after landlords began chasing him for money.
Mr Shevket – at one point in his evidence he said that he was never aware that one of the detectives investigating the case was having a sexual relationship with his sister, Zehra – said of Greenfields: “It didn’t seem like a legitimate operation.
“But I wanted to give it a chance. It was not my business to get involved in the way he ran his business. I was hoping to settle there and have a job. I had no power over that office.”
He admitted that at one point he impersonated a police officer to investigate Mr Green’s share dealings, adding: “It was a mistake but at the time I was so upset after what had happened I just wanted the truth.”
Mr Shevket said that Mr Green had given him £80,000 to look after.
“It was on the understanding that I would hide it, sorry, hold it for a certain amount of time,” he told the court. “I felt at the time I was doing an honourable man a favour. I was doing my boss a favour.”
The defendant said that when he first met Mr Green he thought he was being taken on by a big player in the property world.
Mr Shevket said: “He actually told me he owned a penthouse in Monte Carlo and he said, I think, it was worth £1 million or something like that.”
The trial continues. |
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