Irchester man's worldwide £500,000 fraud included Covid savings scam

An Irchester man is facing jail after conning people across the globe out of almost half-a-million pounds - including one scam where he claimed to be helping people through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Myles Carter, 43, spun a web of lies, using fake companies and multiple aliases to trick at least 101 people from the UK and as far afield as Dubai, Portugal and Australia into parting with their money.

Police said Carter’s illegal activities included setting up fake managed trading accounts and a Covid-19 savings scam.

One victim handed over £50,000 after Carter, of Alfred Street, claimed to be running a fund set up to help people through the global pandemic.

The same victim was found to have lost a total of £118,472.32 after repeatedly giving Carter money believing it would be invested on his behalf.

Appearing at Northampton Crown Court last Friday, April 9, Carter pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation and one of money laundering, after he stole at least £493,935.49 through a number of schemes he ran from May 2013 to March 2020.

A spokesman for the Fraud Crime Team at Northamptonshire Police said: “The fraudulent activities of Myles Carter have caused his many victims to suffer significant financial losses, leading to untold heartache and stress.

“During our investigation, we identified more than 100 victims from around the world who were taken in by his various scams, not least because he took pains to create fake company names based on legitimate businesses, and also used multiple aliases to draw people in, including making misleading and fake posts on social media, all in order to trick people into giving him their money.

“We are very pleased Carter has accepted responsibility for his actions and entered guilty pleas to the charges against him.

“Northamptonshire Police takes reports of any fraud very seriously and we encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of this kind of crime to report it to Action Fraud.”

Carter will be sentenced on May 7.