Lytham St. Anne’s resident David Levi has today (Thursday 21st December) been jailed for five years.  Levi pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property, and two counts of fraud.

The Clifton Drive resident was the leader of a gang of heartless fraudsters who stole more than £500,000 in charity donations by posing as collectors. Among the outfits they donned for credibility as official charity representatives were Pudsey Bear suits together with Children in Need collection buckets. This enabled the conmen to raise more than half-a-million pounds – only to spend the cash on themselves.

Full details of the case were shared by Lytham St Anne’s News on Tuesday 19th December: https://www.lythamstannes.news/news/lytham-st-annes-conman-collected-as-pudsey-but-kept-the-cash-for-himself/

Also imprisoned today were other members of Levi’s gang:

• Kaysha Beck, 31, of Lytham St Anne’s, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. She received 18 months in prison.
• Robert Ferguson, 63, from Blackpool, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. He received two years and five months in prison.
• William Ormand, 64, of Blackpool, who was convicted by a jury of three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. He received three years and four months in prison.
• Howard Collins, 73, of Blackpool, who  pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of fraud. He received 28 months in prison. has been jailed for five years.
• Stephen Chesterman, 63 from Benfleet, Essex, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He received 22 months in prison.
• Martin Ebanks, 59, from Oldham, who ho pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He received 18 months in prison.

Hayley Cooper, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS, said, ‘The actions of David Levi and the criminal group deprived life-saving charities of significant amounts of money. Members of the public gave their money generously and in good faith, perhaps reassured by seeing the logos of national charities.  Sadly, the majority of the donations were pocketed by the defendants.’

Whenever money is collected for charity, there must be absolute transparency and in bucket collections, every penny donated must go to those charities. At the CPS, we have specialist teams to prosecute cases of serious fraud such as this and we work closely with investigators to bring perpetrators to justice.’

Levi is pictured in his Pudsey Suit in the featured photograph and in a Police mug shot below.