09:22
07 Dec
A Harvard-educated lawyer swindled £2 million ($2.4million) in a property scam and then blew a huge chunk of it on gambling a court in England heard recently…
69-year-old Tim Damiani, of Muswell Hill, London, stands accused of three counts of fraud by false representation after allegedly concocting a false £1.5million investment plan to buy a share of a Mayfair mansion.
Damiani is also accused of conning another £500,000 from his unsuspecting client on the promise of providing British and Italian identity documents for her and her family.
The victim, Turkish millionaire Aysun Kibar, was offered Damiani’s share of 28 Charles Street – an 8-bedroom mansion just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park and worth £12.6m (almost $15m).
Kibar was told she could either keep it if she liked it, or sell it on for a £1 million profit, but despite sending him the money, the house was never purchased and the money never returned.
Southwark Crown Court also heard that another £500,000 was handed over – £300,000 for British driving licenses and passports, and then £200,000 for Italian identity documents – none of which she received.
The court heard that investigators found Damiani – who goes by several names, including Dr Al Tamimi and Ali Tamimi – “squandered just shy of £500,000 at casinos” between October 2016 and January 2017.
In addition, he gave £76,540 to his children, but the prosecution claims: “Not a single penny was returned to Ms Kibar.”
The defence claimed that Mr Damiaini was merely a go-between and that Ms Kibar voluntarily transferred the money to avoid a tax amnesty.
The case continues.
Earlier this year, another case saw pharmacist Peter Saad defraud a church friend of more than £530,000 to cover gambling debts.
Saad, who was given a 21-month jail sentence and subsequently struck off the medical register, created fake documents purporting to show he had “serious if not terminal” testicular cancer”.
The money he received was to supposedly fund private treatment, “including an operation and chemotherapy”, the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) heard in April.
Mr Saad claimed his gambling addiction had been cured, producing a letter from the National Gambling Clinic that stated there was “no risk of repetition of his gambling addiction”.
Last year, PokerTube covered the story of 44-year-old Andy May, a senior manager earning £50,000 a year, who siphoned more than £1.3million which he squandered at firms such as Betfair, Betway, and BoyleSports.
May lost over £600,000 on Betway over a two-year spell, but was already £116,000 down before he was asked to provide proof of income.
The addicted gambler simply doctored his genuine pay records using Microsoft Paint, a standard free program on every Windows computer, before continuing to gamble, sometimes betting more than his real annual salary.
May received a 4-year prison sentence for his fraudulent activity.
If your gambling has become a problem, contact GamCare online in the UK, the NCPG in the US, or the ProblemGamblingGuide for other countries.
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