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Former mayor aided international fraudsters
A GANG of fraudsters including a former mayor of Selby and the father of a York councillor has been convicted of a multi-million pound international con.
The complex scam which stretched from the United Kingdom to Spain, Gibraltar and Tenerife was uncovered by officers from North Yorkshire Police in one of the biggest investigations the force has undertaken in the past decade.
Paul Blanchard, whose son, also called Paul, is a councillor on York Council, masterminded the fraud which involved an audacious attempt to steal 4.3m from a London-based bank before transferring the cash to a Spanish account.
Blanchard senior, 63, of St Oswald's Court, Fulford, York, who has convictions for fraud dating back 30 years, also oversaw a 375,000 money-laundering operation and an attempt to obtain a British passport under a false name for a Moldovan woman.
He was jailed for six-and-a-half years after being convicted along with five other men and a woman of offences relating to money laundering, obtaining a false passport and theft.
Among them was Christopher Eyre, a former mayor of Selby and lay preacher, who was recruited for his legal expertise through his work as a solicitor.
Eyre, 54, of Doncaster Road, Selby, was jailed for two years for fraud, the fake passport conspiracy and money laundering.
Det Insp Adam Harland, of North Yorkshire Police's Financial Investigation Unit, said: "It is one of the longest-running and most complex inquiries which the force has undertaken in the last 10 years.
"Paul Blanchard senior is an individual who has a record for persistent and consistent dishonesty. We found it extremely difficult to discover a single honest transaction which he has conducted."
Full story in Thursday's Yorkshire Post.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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