Harby man jailed for conning 10 people out of £100,000

A 53-year-old Harby man who conned 10 people out of a total of more than £100,000 has been jailed for seven years.
Keith Atkin, of Harby, who has been jailed for conning 10 people out of more than £100,000Keith Atkin, of Harby, who has been jailed for conning 10 people out of more than £100,000
Keith Atkin, of Harby, who has been jailed for conning 10 people out of more than £100,000

Keith Atkin, of Nether Street, appeared at Nottingham Crown Court was sentenced on Thursday following a 12-day trial which started on October 29.

His crimes had distressing impacts on his victims’ lives, ruining the honeymoon of a newly-wed couple in one case and and resulting in an elderly man losing his pension in another.

He was arrested in September 2016 and an investigation uncovered that Atkin had been committing fraud since around February 2014.

Atkin had been pretending to be operating as a travel or investment company, the court was told, and he would get people to part with money but the goods would never materialise.

One victim paid £74,550 to Atkin as part of an investment scheme. The rest of the money he gained by selling fake holidays to Lanzarote, Dubai, the Maldives and Monaco.

He even used one victim’s account to try and get finance for a brand new Mercedes and stole £1,855 from another victim’s bank account.

Atkin pleaded not guilty to nine counts of fraud by false representation but was convicted by the jury.

He also admitted to being an undischarged bankrupt at the start of the trial, for which he was disqualified from being a director for 10 years.

Det Con Chris Underwood said: “Atkin embarked on an elaborate set of lies in an attempt to avoid the fact that he tricked an elderly gentleman out of his pension, ruined the honeymoon of a newlywed couple, a surprise birthday holiday of a life time and numerous other people’s holidays.

“It’s had a huge impact on his victim, one man who thought he was booking a special birthday holiday for his wife, lost his job, pension and benefits.”

Det Con Underwood added: “Atkin’s acts of dishonesty have changed his life forever.

“He only committed these crimes out of greed to fund his lavish lifestyle of fast cars and luxury items.

“We hope the victim’s feel reassured that despite denying the offences, he has now been held to account by the courts and will be forced to think about his actions from behind bars.”