A CROOKED businessman has been jailed for swindling a South Devon pensioner out of £400,000 in a vintage wine fraud.

Emmanuel Okunoren discovered that his victim had once invested in high value wines and tricked him into believing that he still owned £70,000 worth of top vintages.

He stole the identity of a legitimate fine wine dealer and convinced the owner that he could retrieve his wine for a fee of £3,600.

Okunoren then invented a series on further administrative hurdles that required more and more up-front fees. 

When they exceeded the purported value of the wine he fooled the victim into paying even more to recoup the money he had already lost. 

University dropout Okunoren ran an online shoe company in London but had racked up gambling debts and was desperate for money.

He operated with a sophisticated gang of fraudsters who were able the create the impression that they were from a legitimate company called TMT Investments, which the client was able to check out.

Police found £6,000 cash, Rolex watches and expensive designer gear when they raided his home. He had also been on holiday to Dubai shopping at Harrods.

Okunoren, aged 27, of Bromley, London, admitted fraud and was jailed for four years and six months by Recorder Mr Mathew Turner at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: ‘You had no legitimate income and were funding your lifestyle through fraud. You accept you continued offending because you were greedy.’

Mr Ian Graham, prosecuting, said Okunoren approached the victim in May last year, claiming to work for TMT Investments and using the false name of one of their real employees, Darren Henderson.

The victim had previously invested in fine wine and was conned into believing that a batch that he knew nothing about had been located and was worth £70,000.

He was asked to make an initial payment to free it from storage but over the next five months a series of deceptions were created to extract more and more money.

He paid a total of £399,400, of which £182,000 was refunded by the bank. He may get some more back through the sale of Okunoren’s property under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The money was paid into different bank accounts but withdrawn or transferred within minutes to untraceable accounts, showing the sophistication of the fraud.

An impact statement said the fraud had left him worrying about money, and forcing him to delay his retirement and carry on working until he was at least 70.

Miss Sarah Wood, defending, said Okunoren came from a good family and had been reluctant to admit what he did because of the shame he had brought on them.

She said he had run his own business selling trainers until April last year but developed a gambling habit which led him to commit the fraud to pay off debts.