Briton's loans scam left trail of misery, court told

Brian Baillie (left) paid $25,000 to Ronald Bellamy (right) .

Every night for seven months an old white Mitsubishi Sigma would pull up at the Birkenhead Wharf in Auckland.

Brian Baillie would roll back the driver's seat, slip into his green sleeping bag and bed down for the night.

The 55-year-old motelier was left living out of his car after being financially ruined by a British man, Ronald Alexander Bellamy.

Yesterday, the Serious Fraud Office told a depositions hearing in the Auckland District Court that between September 2000 and July 2001, Bellamy fleeced 20 New Zealanders of $270,000.

He is facing 20 charges of theft by misappropriating funds, 26 of using a document to commit fraud and six of forging a document.

But in a deal struck between the SFO and defence lawyer Paul Gruar, Bellamy, who was extradited to New Zealand in February, has indicated that he will today plead guilty to 14 of the charges relating to 14 victims.

The victims paid deposits for loans they never received.

Bellamy, based in Dorchester in Dorset, ran Euro Consultants International and claimed he had access to funds from investors who would provide finance for projects in New Zealand.

The 61-year-old offered loans at 1 per cent deposit up to US$10,000 ($16,560), which he said was refundable less US$50 if the loan was turned down.

Former Waikato finance broker John Thompson (now bankrupt), Keith Charles Foote, a director of Eastlink Capital, a debt-restructuring and refinancing company, and Graham Ernest Goodeve, who became a director of Eastlink in 2000, worked as Bellamy's agents, recruiting clients, the court heard. The SFO has not charged them.

Mr Thompson met Bellamy in 1998 and helped organise a trip for him to New Zealand in 1999 funded with money from some investors, who each paid £1690 ($5085).

He introduced Bellamy to Mr Foote and Mr Goodeve.

He has told the SFO that advance fees paid by the victims were forwarded straight to Bellamy and he negotiated his own fee with clients directly.

SFO prosecutor Anita Killeen said in court that Mr Thompson dealt with six of the victims, including Mr Baillie.

They came from around the North Island and included property developers, managers, farmers and moteliers.

Bellamy claimed he had funds from Dutch investors, an American Express account containing $20 million, funds from Medicorp Equity and Investments and Sobelco Investments.

He forged all the documents on his laptop; there was never any money, says the SFO.

In Mr Baillie's case, Bellamy said a US$1.77 million loan had been approved.

Mr Baillie was getting out of his Whitianga motel, Kingfisher Lodge, and planned to buy the Lakeland of Taupo in Rotorua.

He paid Bellamy $25,000 in the hope of getting his loan.

Mr Baillie had gone unconditional on the property in Rotorua. The funds did not arrive.

His furniture, which was in storage awaiting the move, was sold to cover the cost of storing it while he waited for the money, and he estimates he lost $350,000.

He says he was told that fallout from the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 had caused problems and Bellamy never answered his phone in Dorchester.

Then Mr Baillie's son died. With nowhere to live he parked his car at the Birkenhead Wharf every night for seven months and slept in it.

He took cold showers in the park at the wharf about 3 in the morning.

Since then Mr Baillie's life has improved.

A Napier accountant lent him money to get a lease on the Tennyson Motor Inn in Napier, which he now runs.

He had never seen Bellamy until the Herald showed him a picture yesterday.

"I'd like to print one off and put it bloody up on the wall and have half a dozen darts, with poison in the end of them."