Trucker Tried to Sell The Ritz

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - A truck driver from England almost got away with the elaborate scheme of “selling” the Ritz in London , the Independent reported.

Anthony Lee, who calls himself “a straight-talking Yorkshireman” was convicted in a London court and sentenced to five years in jail for what the judge called an “elaborate and outrageous scam.”

Terry Collins was the businessman who became the target of Lee’s escapade.

Lee and his partner in crime, Patrick Dolan, who was exonerated by the jury, met Collins in 2006 during a time when there were rumors going around that the Ritz was on the market to be sold, The Daily Mail reported.

Lee claimed that he was a close friend of the owners of the Ritz, the Barclay brothers, and was going to purchase the property himself for £200 million ($312 million), but was willing to sell it to Collins for £250 million ($390 million).

Collins agreed to the deal and planned on selling it to Dutch property mogul Marcel Boekhoorn, The Independent reported.

Lee may have gotten away with everything had Collins not ended up suing Lee after he collected a £1 million ($1.5 million) deposit in December 2006 and suddenly told Collins the deal was off.

Collins ended up winning and a further investigation opened due to The High Court judge saying that this counted as fraud.

The two-year investigation was led by Detective Sgt. Garry Ridler.

He told The Daily Mail , “This man is your typical fraudster. He gains the trust of people through lies and once he's got them under his control, he extracts the money from them. This took a lot of planning, because to say you are a contact of the Barclay brothers and convince someone of that, that takes a lot of doing.”

After Lee was convicted of obtaining a money transfer by deception, Judge Stephen Robbins said, “This offense has been compared with other fraudsters from the past, who tried to sell the Eiffel Tower, Brooklyn Bridge and Buckingham Palace.”