Jail for Scarborough oil trader who duped friends into investing

James Rintoul lied about the success of Fuel Pulse Ltd, based at his home in Wykeham, near Scarborough, to persuade them to hand over funds he would use to buy and sell oil on the American markets.

Asking for minimum stakes of $100,000, he used a mathematical model to predict trading patterns and was successful for the first two months.

When the fund started losing money, he falsely claimed that it was making incredible returns and produced statements as evidence which bore no resemblance to actual trading figures.

Despite £1.3 million being handed over by friends and associates the fund kept losing money, but Rintoul insisted their investments were safe. He said the fund was worth $15.8m but by August 2011 it had less than $4,000 left.

He later approached two investment bodies with the fictitious figures in order to raise up to $50m in capital to boost the fund. Both attempts failed at the due diligence stage as Rintoul failed to show the actual trading losses and instead used fabricated statements produced on his home computer.

Based on his false trading figures Rintoul, who had previously been a very successful oil trader, then withdrew more than £250,000 in management fees for his own personal gain. Police say these fees bore no resemblance to the company’s trading results and he would never have been entitled to these returns.

Having worked for large multi-national companies in London, he used his reputation and his contacts to set up the fund.

He was able to attract investment by using friends who trusted him and fabricating returns showing massive profits, as well sending investors expensive Christmas hampers.

The 55-year-old, now of Brough in the East Riding, was arrested in September 2011 on suspicion of fraud after the business collapsed. He was sentenced yesterday after admitting fraudulent trading and money laundering at York Crown Court.

Inspector Garry Ridler, who led the North Yorkshire Police investigation, said Rintoul “played with the investors’ money for his own gratification and his trading was described as chaotic”.

He said: “At the time of the collapse of the fund, the Fuel Pulse statements were showing nearly $3 million in the account when in reality he had lost the lot.

“Rintoul used his friendship with the investors to fund his own lifestyle and conduct this Ponzi-style fraud. This breach of trust and damage to the investors’ reputation, along with the loss of personal money, was what made this such a cruel fraud.”