A LIMERICK man now living in England has been acquitted of conspiracy to defraud in an elaborate scam aimed at selling the world famous Ritz Hotel in London.
Retired contracts manager Patrick Dolan (68), Philip Lane, Tottenham, north London, was cleared of the conspiracy charge at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday.
However, an unemployed lorry driver was convicted of trying to sell the Ritz Hotel for £250 million by falsely claiming to be connected to the wealthy owners.
Anthony Lee (49) preyed on people who were interested in the expensive hotel in Piccadilly and lured them into handing over £1 million.
Lee, Broad Lane, Goole, Yorkshire, convinced potential buyer Terence Collins that he was a “close friend and associate” of the billionaire Barclay brothers, who own the prestigious Ritz.
Mr Collins in turn sought the support of Dutch billionaire Marcus Boekhoorn to finance a £1 million “deposit” payment, telling him that the Barclay brothers had their “secretive reasons” for selling the Ritz through a third party.
When the money was lodged in Lee’s AIB bank account in Dublin, he and his business associate Patrick Dolan split the proceeds between them.
The court was told that Mr Dolan blew his share of €644,000, then worth about £435,000, on a new Mercedes, horse racing and paying off his mortgage.
“I had a good time – a wise man told me there’s no shops in the graveyard,” Mr Dolan, now bankrupt, told jurors.
Under cross-examination, Mr Dolan told jurors he had been “set up by rich people and used as a scapegoat” when the Ritz deal collapsed.
The court heard that the Ritz Hotel owners Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay had never met or heard of Lee and knew nothing of his attempts to sell off their landmark property.
Lee will be sentenced later this month.