LONDON - A woman posed as a baroness in a bid to get her hands on a massive £16 trillion and pull off one of the biggest frauds in world history, a court heard yesterday. Ms Elda Beguinua (52) claimed she had access to gold and other precious metals worth £0.6 trillion hidden in the vaults of a Far Eastern bank.
The prosecution said she tried to convince a broker, Mr John Fox, to use special certificates to open lines of credit to secure the 10 figure fortune. But almost from the start he decided her story was totally, fictitious, Southwark Crown Court was told.
The prosecutor, Mr Martin Hicks, told the jury that he knew £0.6 trillion worth of precious metals was the equivalent of 80,000 tonnes. "He was also aware that in the last 150 years the world's entire precious metals production had only netted something in the order of 35,000 tonnes."
Ms Beguinua, of Chepstow Road, Bayswater, west London, denies one charge of using a copy of a false instrument in June 1995, and a second count of going equipped to cheat. The hearing continues.