HE WAS a victim of a lottery scam, but now a father-of-three has been jailed after conning others out of £100,000 to invest in the same fraudulent scheme. 

Keith Kapri appeared at Winchester Crown Court last Friday where he was sentenced for eight counts of fraud relating to conning six people out of more than £100,000, after being found guilty at a trial.

Prosecutor Timothy Moores told the court that the 59-year-old father-of-three, from Hartley Wintney, had fallen victim to a fraudulent scam and had lost large sums of money after he received emails informing him that he had won the Spanish lottery. 

In order to release the funds, the court heard, he was asked to pay a set amount of fees. 

But when the money did not materialise, Kapri was asked to invest more money to release the funds. 

At this point he began “loaning” the money from other people, informing them their cash would be sent to Spain to free up inheritance money he was owed. 

Mr Moores told the court that Kapri convinced one victim to part with more than £56,000, promising to invest the money in non-existent shares in a radio company he was setting up, and also lied to say he needed money to pay for medication for his mother. 

After collecting a total of £101,700,72, Mr Moores said Kapri sent a large sum of this money to the scam in Spain, with his victims seeing no return from their investment. 

Mr Moores added: “Mr Kapri had used a large bulk of the money he had taken from his victims to pay into a scam he himself had fallen victim to. None of the money sent to Spain is no longer in his control.”

Kapri began conning people out of their money in 2012. 

He was arrested in June 2014, and Mr Moores said Kapri was still receiving money from his victims while on police bail. 

The prosecutor said one victim had given their entire life savings to Kapri, and he appealed to the court to consider a higher sentencing category. 

The court heard that Mr Kapri’s good character had led his victims to trust him, which he took advantage of. 

Defending Kapri, Elaine Stapleton said: “He is a man of good character up until this time, and he seems quite spent if I can put it that way.”

Judge Keith Cutler said: “Your good features allowed you to gain the trust of people, which was betrayed, leaving your victims to feel enormously cheated and let down by you.”

Sentencing Kapri to three years in prison, the judge said: “He indeed knows this feeling as a victim himself and he no doubt feels angry with himself.”

He added: “They (the victims) have had their trust knocked out of them and feel foolish."