A former UK police officer has been sentenced to six years in jail for his role in a horse racing betting syndicate scam that defrauded thousands of people out of £44m (€53m/$59m).
Michael Stanley, 67, of Chatham in Kent pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to a series of fraud offences on 24 September. He admitted to operating the ‘Layzey Racing Syndicate’, a Ponzi-style scheme disguised as a horse racing betting syndicate.
The scam ran from 2013 to February 2019, claiming to be a lay betting horse racing gambling scheme. Members were invited to invest funds supposedly for collective gambling controlled by Stanley.
However, Stanley instead used new investments to pay earlier members, creating a Ponzi-type scheme. He also lied about the amount of successful gambling that took place, falsely inflated the value of investments and paid money from the scheme into his own accounts.
At its peak, the scheme had over 6,000 members, including friends and family of Stanley.
Estimated £10…
