Wolverhampton fraudster promised lucrative escort jobs
A judge once warned allowing conman Stuart Aitchison to control an escort agency was "like putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank".
Judge Robin Onions made the remark 10 years ago as he jailed the trickster for three-and-a-half years and declared that the man should never run a similar organisation again. The caution fell on deaf ears.
Aitchison, now aged 43, was so motivated with making money from the lucrative lonely hearts business even a long prison sentence could not dampen his ardour.
Just a few years after being freed he launched another escort agency that turned into a carbon copy of his previous scam and today threatens to land the fraudster back behind bars. He even ran it from York Chambers, the same Wolverhampton city centre building used as a base by its ill fated predecessor, Beth's Worldwide Agency.
This time it masqueraded under two names, Companions UK Professional Escort Service and Fleurs. An advert declared: "Escorts wanted now! Busy agency requires men and women to provide companionship to wealthy clients. Part or full time. High earning potential. Beginners welcome. Escorts available at £150 per hour."
Those interested were urged to text or phone their details and hundreds of calls poured in from throughout the country.
At least 400 people – both men and women – signed up. They each paid a registration fee of up to £114 and then as much as £55 a month for extra services ranging from bespoke business cards to specialist security.
There was no chance of them getting a booking since there was nobody to date. Unemployed Aitchison did not even have a data base of clients. Trading Standards officers found over 400 completed application forms from would-be escorts in a pile on the floor outside a bedroom at the house he rented in Church Road, Oxley, when the premises were raided on December 9, 2011.
City centre offices used by him in Queen Street and York Chambers in York Street were also searched but found to be empty.
Computers and other documents seized from his home showed no details of any business activity. But statements revealed that almost £77,000 had gone through bank accounts of Aitchison, who was listed as running four firms – Companions UK, Fleurs Nationwide, DTFM Ltd and Fleurs Promotions Ltd – between 2010 and 2011. Duped victims from as far afield as Aberdeenshire who phoned to discover why they had not received any bookings were kept on hold for lengthy periods while "checks" were supposedly being made.
Later they discovered that their fruitless calls had been to a Premium rate number that brought in even more money for the conman. Aitchison might have hoped those he tricked would be too embarrassed to complain. That proved to be the case with women victims but Wolverhampton Trading Standards officers started getting calls about a possible fraud at the escort agency from men who had been duped by the scam in February 2010.
These continued until they had enough information to launch a raid in December the following year. Their investigation revealed how Aitchison had tried to cover up the racket by offering 'mission impossible' jobs he knew could never take place, such as a man in Newark who was told there was a client to meet in Edinburgh and given just two hours to make the 270 mile journey.
Or the man from Stevenage given a 'booking' in Glasgow 385 miles away and told to pay his own travel costs. Among those signed up as an 'escort' was a person registered as blind.
Investigators wrote to over 400 people whose names and addresses were listed on application forms or other documents found at the home of Aitchison. They received 104 replies. No 'escort' reported ever going on a date. One man told of being invited by Aitchison to a training day at the Novotel in Wolverhampton and arriving to discover there was none.
Andy Jervis, who is head of regulatory services at Wolverhampton City Council, said: "There were no records of calls or bookings, no data base of clients and nothing to suggest that any attempt had been made to match escorts with clients. In fact there was no evidence of any business activity at all. It was a calculated scam aimed at lonely, vulnerable people that used the illusion of work and easy money to lure its victims."
