Fraud led to breakdown of victim's marriage

The shocking impact of Bill Williams' crimes were laid bare in a court hearing that saw him locked up for a further three years.

In impact statements read by a senior prosecutor, one victim told how the financial pressures caused by the fraudster led to the break-up of his marriage while another was forced to close his business.

It emerged today that 60-year-old bogus accountant Williams used a series of guises to "hoodwink" victims into handing over £136,500 between them.

But as well as the financial impact he caused, the frauds also led to untold personal devastation for the victims, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Mr Andrew Wheeler said John Munning was conned into handing over £76,000 when Williams told him he was seeking money on behalf of a developer and could guarantee a 50 per cent return on his cash.

Williams then went on to take a £42,000 inheritance from Niall Peace by telling him the money was to be used to buy construction machinery that would be sold abroad, again promising a considerable return on the investment.

The financial pressures caused by losing that money caused the break-up of Mr Peace's marriage, Mr Wheeler explained.

And while investigators from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills were carrying out a probe into the accountancy activity of Williams, he took £18,000 from Wednesbury couple Russell and Joanne Orme by telling them the money was to be used for the renovation of a house that would see the investment double when the property was sold six months later. As a result of losing the money, Mr Orme had to shut his Rugeley-based petrol forecourt business, said Mr Wheeler.

Former Tipton Town chairman Williams, who has a string of convictions for fraud, is over a year into a five-and-a-half year prison term for pocketing more than £276,000 from the life insurance and pension policies of murdered Wolverhampton father Andrew Diack.

To steal the life insurance of pension policy of Mr Diack, Williams visited the devastated partner of Mr Diack just days after he had been stabbed to death in the Flying Dutchman pub, Wolverhampton, in 2009.

He told Rachel Evans that he would take care of financial arrangements and took documentation from the Wolverhampton home to allow him to cash-in the policies and steal the cash.

The devastating effect of the crime has left Mr Diack's daughter with a £100,000 inheritance tax bill that has yet to be resolved.

For the offences against Mr Orme, Mr Peace, from Coventry, and Mr Munning, from Worcestershire, he was given an extra three years. Those crimes took place between 2002 and 2004 but came to light after a case against Williams was being progressed for the fraud against Mr Diack.

And yesterday's hearing heard while he was being investigated by the authorities for his latest crimes, large amounts of money was being moved between a series of undeclared accounts.

At a previous court case, father-of-two Williams, of Chester Road, West Bromwich, was told to pay back £36,000 of the money he had stolen. That money will be split between his victims.

Through his accountancy company Williams & Co, Williams has swindled hundreds of thousands of pounds from scores of victims he has targeted since the 1980s.

He was jailed for three years on two separate occasions in 1986 and again in 1996 for committing frauds totalling more than £200,000.