Low-lifes who lived the high life

Reporter: Erin Heywood
Date online: 22 February 2013

A gang of Oldham fraudsters lived the life of Riley with a multi–million pound scam on high street shops.

But the high life came to an end yesterday when they were jailed for a total of 15 years.

Kevin Pomeroy (47) and his wife Julie (39) of Stamford Drive, Failsworth spent the proceeds on a lavish lifestyle — including a £380,000 home, a holiday apartment in Spain, high–powered cars, jewellery and rare sports memorabilia.

Pomeroy and his nephew Daniel Pomeroy posed as senior officials of franchises such as McDonald’s and Greggs to dupe companies into thinking they would receive huge payments for bulk orders. But they never paid up, instead selling the goods on eBay and the black market.

In all 13 people were arrested in connection with the scam and 12 charged. One of those arrested, Duncan Booth of Shaw, committed suicide before police could bring charges.

Thirteen companies fell victim and lost around £3 million. As many as 80 companies were caught in the conspiracy, though some grew suspicious and cancelled orders — otherwise total losses would have been almost £20 million.

Passing sentence at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Michael Henshell spoke of “fraud at the highest order”.

“These were audacious offences; all of the items had a ready market and the fact so few have been recovered demonstrates that,” he said. “The scale of the enquiry was enormous and required many police forces to investigate.”

Kevin Pomeroy, described by the judge as the “person giving out the orders”, was sentenced to eight and a half years after admitting two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one of money laundering.

Julie — described by her lawyer as someone who “watched the deceit go on from afar”, was given a 12 month jail sentence suspended for two years after pleading guilty to money laundering. She must also so 150 hours of unpaid community work.

Their nephew Daniel Pomeroy, who pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to defraud, was sentenced to three and a half years in jail, while accomplice James Chapman (22), of Sycamore Avenue, Chadderton was given a three year sentence after admitting two counts of conspiracy to defraud.


Among the items ordered by Pomeroy were:
::4,000 32in TVs from Alba.

::200 LCD TVs from Daewoo.

::2,500 wireless laptops from CellTec — the company was hit so hard by the losses it went into liquidation and 40 jobs were lost.

::800 laptops from Dell.

::20,000 bottles of luxury Marks & Spencer Champagne.

::1,600 Marks & Spencer fake Christmas trees.

::500 vacuum cleaners from Dyson.

::1,400 desktop computers from Dell.

::10,000 bottles of whisky from Glengoyne Distillery.

::20 go-karts from Biscart.

::547 coffee machines from Nestlé.

::400 32in HD-ready TVs from Argos.


More background and pictures in tonight’s print and eChron editions