£750m mortgage fraudster's sentence appealed

The Attorney General is appealing against the seven-year jail sentence handed down to a £750 million mortgage fraudster, claiming it was unduly lenient and not long enough.

The Court of Appeal will hear the matter about Achilleas Kallakis next month, alongside a plea from jailed City trader Nicholas “Beano” Levene who will argue that the 13-year sentence he received last November was too severe, reported the Guardian.

The two sentences were handed down in the space of two months at Southwark Crown Court, where judges are used to dealing with complex fraud prosecutions.

Offences committed by Kallakis and Levene were different, but the two appeals raise questions about consistency of sentencing by judges in Serious Fraud Office (SFO) cases.

Achilleas Kallakis

Kallakis, 44, a former Croydon travel agent, duped banks out of more than £750 million, posing as a Mayfair property tycoon.

The fraudulent loans were obtained from banks between 2003 and 2007.

Together with an old university friend, Alex Williams, Kallakis was found guilty in January of two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

The Attorney General is also seeking a longer sentence in relation to Williams, an expert forger, who was given a five-year jail term.

The verdict came at the end of a second four-month trial brought by the SFO.

During sentencing in January, Judge Andrew Goymer suggested that lenders defrauded by Kallakis – Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Scotland – "do bear some degree of responsibility" for Britain's largest mortgage fraud.

He described them as having "undoubtedly acted carelessly and imprudently".

Among the many warning signs the banks failed to spot was that, under previous names, Kallakis and Williams had past convictions for a forgery scam involving the sale of bogus manorial titles to Americans.

The appeal is set for 12th April.

Nicholas Levene

Victims of Levene's £32 million Ponzi fraud included Richard Caring, owner of upmarket restaurants The Ivy and Le Caprice and Sir Brian Souter and his sister Ann Gloag, founders of Stagecoach.

In total, the former city trader conned more than £316 million from wealthy investors to fund a luxurious lifestyle, which included private jets, super yachts, and a £150,000-a-year box at Ascot.

The SFO discovered he lost £32 million of the total amount between April 2005 and September 2009.

Levene, 48, had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud, one count of false accounting and one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception.