Freddy David, 49, a financial advisor who siphoned off his wealthy customers' money to pay for his children's school fees and his gambling habits, has pled guilty to fraud by abuse of position and obtaining a money transfer by deception at Southwark Crown Court in the UK.

Prosecutors referred to his machinations - which targeted Jewish people from the upper end of the income scale - as a 'Ponzi scheme,' named after US fraudster Charles Ponzi (pictured). He told customers that their money would be locked up in a high-interest bank account for years and the court heard that he had manufactured a fake investment product in an imaginary Bank of Scotland account. His victims, some of whom came to his trial, live in Borehamwood, Elstree, Wembley and other places.

David himself is Jewish and counted some friends among his victims. He stole £14,545,594 from 55 of his customers over a decade. He hails from Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, where he established his company, HBFS Wealth Management, in 1977. According to the Daily Mirror his wife Hannah, who was at one time a Tory parliamentary candidate and is the national director of the Conservative Policy Forum, is a 25% shareholder who has played no part in the company.

Fraud by abuse of position is an offence under s4 Fraud Act. One can be found guilty of it if one occupies a position in which one is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of someone else, but dishonestly abuses that position, intending to make a gain for oneself. No actual loss need occur. Affinity fraud, another term that applies here, refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups.

Things took a turn for the worse for David when the Financial Conduct Authority opened an investigation into the firm in November last year. It was liquidated in March.

Up until very recently, various rabbis have been willing to speak up in David's favour. Additionally, Rabbi Benji Silverstone, the head of HBFS Wealth Management’s Manchester office, had been arrested on 19 December but in May the City of London Police - Britain's main anti-fraud force - expressed its intention to take “no further action” against him.