Original subtitles

Education has always been very core to me.

He had this business idea of creating this app.

It was his dream.

We needed investment.

I sat down next to Rajesh Ghedia.

He was very sure of himself.

He explained to me that I would put my money in, £142,000,

but I could take out the £1.5 million investment.

This is the start of something

very big.

It seemed too good to be true.

Ghedia's driven by his own greed.

They'd got into his account and stolen the money.

You start to feel really nervous and worried.

How can this possibly happen?

He seems to be getting a kick out of it.

He would send people around with guns.

It was horrendous.

To walk away from it isn't even an option.

They were very, very dark days.

19 miles west of London live Wayne and Nicky.

The couple first met in Hobart, Tasmania in 1996.

I had a cafe at the time and Wayne would come in

and he'd order a toasted chicken sandwich

and he'd forget to pay.

He'd say, "Oh, you know, I'll bring it round later..."

He was really interested in me as a person.

And I'd never had anyone who sort of grilled me to that extent.

We got together quite regularly.

It was a good time, actually. Those times were good.

A few years later,

the couple are married and decide to move to the UK.

In 2004, we got a place to live in Egham.

That was good, nice community. We had three girls.

We'd got jobs in the area. The girls went to school here.

When we came here, we made friends very quickly.

I met Wayne and Nicky

at Foxhills Club.

I was drawn to Nicky because I used

to live in Sydney, Australia.

So that Aussie accent caught me immediately.

And we've been very good friends.

On Sundays, we try to meet up and have a drink.

He likes to barbecue and she's a great cook herself.

And as a couple, they are very strong.

After coming to the UK,

Wayne had an ambition to start his own business.

Education has always been something very core to me.

I trained as a teacher.

I've a Bachelor of Education.

I've always wanted to help people learn

and achieve their maximum potential in learning.

He had this business idea of creating this app,

and it meant a lot to him.

Wayne calls the app Super Learning Series.

An educational content application

that can be used across all different learning abilities

to help improve spelling, grammar and maths.

The development of this app was really going forward.

The only thing stopping it was some funding.

He really needed to get together some funding.

In December 2018, with Wayne chasing investors,

a potential early Christmas present arrives.

Our friend Kay had organised a Christmas party for

the neighbours. Good food, a lot of drinks for Christmas.

They're are always great parties.

I sat down next to a gentleman. Rajesh Ghedia was his name.

I've never met Ghedia before this. Black top, black jeans.

I didn't find any positive energy from him.

We got talking about a range of different things -

what excites us, what passions we've got.

Mine was education.

He had a certain passion for kids' toys and learning.

So we connected there.

He informed me that he was

a very senior executive at Bank of America.

He said he owns three apartments in Mayfair, one for each of his kids.

Wayne tells Ghedia he is speaking

with investors about his education app.

He said, "How much are you looking for?"

I said "£1 million."

He said, well, would we be interested in talking to him?

And I said, "Absolutely." And I thought, "This is just perfect."

We were quite excited about it all.

Wayne isn't the only friend Ghedia makes at this time.

John is running a personal training business in

the nearby affluent area of Virginia Water,

when he meets a new client.

This guy comes in. He's called Rajesh,

looking for personal training.

Really friendly, quite charming.

I remember when he first arrived because he pulled up in

a really swanky sports car, which isn't unusual for Virginia Water.

He told me what he did for a living and he handed me his card.

And it said, "Vice President of Bank of America,

"in charge of investments." And I was just like, "Wow."

It appears that Rajesh Ghedia is really keen

to let people know about his lifestyle,

his job, his wealth.

I'm wondering whether this is a way for him to start

to assess to see how people respond to

the way in which he talks about his businesses

and who might be most easily manipulated.

It's not long before Rajesh and John have become good friends.

A couple of years pass and the business is flourishing.

And I mentioned to Rajesh

that I might actually consider selling up,

at which point he says the timing was perfect.

I think Bank of America were just dealing with

an expansion of a big cinema chain.

He said, "Would you maybe consider investing that money?"

Ghedia's suggestion comes at a pivotal moment for John,

who had shared with him that he was grieving the loss of his father.

Losing my dad was horrendous.

My mum was in pieces, obviously, so I had to look after her.

Money felt really important at the time.

And so if I could take care of that,

then I could take care of the family.

Ghedia promises John a 9% annual return on his investment,

which he can then withdraw at the end of the year.

I remember asking him questions about the deal and he said, "Look,

"I'm doing this for you and your mum,

"and I want you to do the best by them."

And I thought that was just so nice.

Ghedia makes this emotional right from the start.

He talks about John's father passing away.

He can see how hard John is working to make a living

and he's using all of those things as

a way of getting John onboard

and to manipulate the situation to his own advantage.

I had some friends that worked in the finance industry

to check over the paperwork and then they said, "It checks out.

"It's great. Go for it."

John commits to putting £65,000 into this investment scheme.

To quote Rajesh, he said, "It's a banker. It's a surefire win."

So, yeah. I went ahead.

A few weeks after Christmas,

Wayne meets Ghedia at a local cafe to discuss

a potential £1 million investment in his business.

So I walked up there. He was already waiting for me.

He'd done his homework. He'd looked at the website.

Ghedia then makes another unexpected offer.

He said he didn't think £1 million would be enough,

and he would like to invest £1.5 million.

I thought, "Wow, this is

"just what I need."

It seemed to be too good to be true.

I had my doubts that someone could just meet at a party

and go through and do that sort of thing.

I can remember saying, "What do you want from it?"

He didn't want anything at that time.

but he was planning to leave that industry,

and he would then come

and pick up a role in the business off

the back of the success that we would have.

I immediately thought, "Well, we can expand faster,

"accelerate our sales strategy and bring on more people.

"This is the start of something very big."

Filled with confidence for the future,

Wayne starts to draw up a contract.

Everything looked so shiny, so bright, so positive.

I never, ever had any idea that it would turn into such

an absolute horror story.

DOORBELL RINGS

Rajesh. RAJESH SPEAKS FAINTLY

Not bad. How are you?

Wayne has been promised a £1.5 million business investment

by his neighbour, Rajesh Ghedia.

But who exactly is he?

Ghedia was very sure of himself.

He spoke eloquently.

He lived in a nice house. His kids went to good schools.

He was very community conscious.

When we started having a few burglary problems in The Grove,

Ghedia was giving information

and suggesting all kinds of security stuff, camera.

He even hosted a meeting in his house.

And he was always, always talking about his homes in Mayfair

and the security system that he uses.

He was helpful in that manner.

Ghedia has offered to personally invest £1.5 million

into Wayne's business, and says that he will do this through

a Bank of America wealth portfolio account designed especially

for large investments.

He explained to me that I would put my money in, £142,000.

He would then put his money in,

and we could then grow that.

But I had to leave my £142,000 in there,

but I could take out the £1.5 million investment.

I actually hated the fact that we had to come up

with that money, because we didn't have it.

But, ah, you know what? It was his dream.

I was there to support Wayne.

So I did check with some of my finance people.

They knew of these investments where you put money in.

With such a reputable company like the Bank of America,

there would be no reason to think that this wasn't real.

Meanwhile, John has been persuaded by Rajesh Ghedia

to invest money from the sale of his business into

a cinema chain.

My first big investment was £65,000.

A lot of money, especially for me to transfer over.

John goes to his bank in person to make the transfer.

When I got to the counter, the lady said,

"So do you know where you're sending your money?"

And I said, "Yeah, it's a verified Bank of America scheme."

And she gave me some paperwork to sign.

I remember just feeling so optimistic and excited

cos I can finally pay some more attention to my family,

make my mum feel good and finances are looked after.

Even though John has sold the business,

he still keeps on private clients, including Rajesh.

Rajesh and I would never talk about business or investments

while we're in the gym. I'd often get updates over email as

to how investments were going. And it was always good news

to know that the money was growing whilst life was going on as normal.

I mean, this is a guy who very much in the community and a close friend.

And, yeah, I have no concerns at all.

So this is a long-term project for Rajesh.

Building trust is a key part of a con artist's work.

He produces all the documents, all the evidence,

and he's able to use all of those things as a means

to convincing and manipulating John.

With the success of the first investment,

Rajesh offers John another investment opportunity for

an even higher rate.

I was immensely grateful, because he doesn't have to

go out of his way. Obviously, it must be some kind of

friends-and-family initiative that he's passing on to me

to get these rates. I invested another £65,000.

John has now invested over £130,000 into

an investment scheme organised by Rajesh.

Which is more money than I've seen in my life. But I'm reassured.

Every email comes from an official Bank of America address.

Every bit of paperwork was officially headed paper.

It's safe money with a safe person.

To also make sure his money is in safe hands,

Wayne meets Ghedia at his Bank of America office.

The offices of the Bank of America are mega impressive.

Marble floor, security guards, receptionist, big desks.

I thought, "This is a milestone in the journey, to go into

"the Bank of America." We went down to the cafeteria.

He's got his name badge on, "Bank of America, Rajesh Ghedia."

There are people next to him with

the same Bank of America badges.

They're talking to him.

He totally knew these people. They knew him.

So if I was worried, it was gone away after that.

Wayne was excited when he came back.

He said, "Oh, I had to go through all this security."

It made it real. It made it real.

After the meeting at the Bank of America office,

Wayne confidently signs a contract with Ghedia

for £1.5 million.

I just kept thinking about

how we would roll the business out.

He could see us putting it out in the UK, in America, in Australia.

We opened bank accounts in different currencies.

We could see it really making a difference.

Wayne was over the moon and I was really, really pleased.

He thought he was going to get a break.

With the deal signed, Wayne and Nicky need to gather

the £142,000 investment money.

Being such a large sum, Ghedia suggests they split up

the payments, the first being £50,000.

So I had to go and get

a private investor to help us with that.

He had very, very high

interest rates on this.

But we thought we would have the money within

a week or two of that happening, so we thought it was worth a risk.

With the £50,000 secured, Wayne makes the first transfer

to his newly established Bank of America account.

It was a little bit frightening,

but I did an initial transfer of £10 to make sure it worked.

But on this first transfer,

there is something odd about

the account details.

I realised that it was a Halifax account,

not a Bank of America account. So I said to Ghedia,

"What's going on here?" And more or less straight away,

he sent me a table through which had a list of banks on it.

Ghedia tells Wayne that Bank of America

often conducts transfers through other agent banks.

What he sent through to me was so fast, it was so convincing.

It was all on Bank of America

headed paper and emails.

So that took away those alarm bells.

Whenever Wayne raises any doubts,

Rajesh Ghedia seems to have an answer for everything.

As far as Wayne and Nicky are concerned,

he's the vice president of the Bank of America.

He's giving them all the official documentation,

he's sending them official correspondence,

and they've got no reason to believe that this is fake.

Reassured, Wayne deposits the full £50,000 into

the wealth portfolio account.

I'm now a customer with a good bit of money in one of

the most prestigious banks in the world.

So after the first investment of £50,000,

I was under the impression that

the funds would be released to us.

So it came as a massive shock to find out that

no, we couldn't access the funds until

the wealth portfolio was fully funded.

Ghedia begins to pressure Wayne and Nicky

to come up with the remaining £92,000 investment.

"When can you get the money? When can you get the money?

"The opportunity will go away."

Some days I just couldn't think straight.

Ghedia is making out that

Wayne will lose out on this investment.

This is a classic tactic.

He is putting that stress and pressure on Wayne

so that he doesn't overthink his decision making.

They're relying on this money

and they don't want this to slip away.

Struggling for options,

Wayne is forced to take extreme measures.

Nicky and I discussed this. It was a huge step to do.

The outstanding £92,000 was made with money we extracted from

a second mortgage on our property,

which was horrific.

It took so much out of us both.

You're always questioning, "Is this the right thing to do?"

I still have sleepless nights over it, thinking about it.

It's not only invested in money, but your mind frame,

your excitement, your heart and soul.

Everything gets involved in it.

We were driven by knowing that our education business

would be successful.

After they put a second mortgage on their home

and Wayne transfers Ghedia the remainder of the £142,000,

Ghedia tells them there will be a nine-month delay

to access the funds.

I fell over. Another thing. Nine months. Why so long?

Still, we had that carrot at the end, you know,

"You're going to get it, £1.5 million."

In anticipation of this huge investment,

Wayne had already hired 20 new staff to work on the app.

He now has to break this devastating news.

Of course they all want to know when they're going to be paid.

We couldn't let them down.

Wayne and Nicky start to pay their staff

from their personal reserves.

A lot of the money we used was from our own savings

and our pension money,

which was going down very,

very fast.

We're paying repayments on the high-interest loans

and then the second-mortgage payments.

It's all adding up and it wasn't nice to do the sums.

This whole thing put Nicky and I under a huge amount of pressure.

Nicky was upset virtually every day about it.

It was trying on us,

and we were just keeping it all together.

The stress in the household was very palpable when I'd go to visit them.

Like, sometimes when I'd say, "Nicky, you OK?",

she'd say, "I don't want to talk about it."

It was really, really worrisome.

Literally, it was just getting through the days.

The stakes are getting really high for Wayne and Nicky.

They've invested everything that they can, emotionally, physically,

financially, that to walk away from it isn't even an option.

Everything is resting on this investment.

John has also been waiting almost a year to cash out on his money,

as well as the profits from his investment in a cinema chain,

done on Ghedia's advice,

a sum now coming to over £158,000.

On the day that the payment is due,

the plan is to have a big celebratory dinner that night.

But the evening rolls around, the money doesn't come.

Well, I wait until the morning and I check my account again,

refresh it, and it's still not there.

So I text Rajesh, and he says that he's been feeling quite ill,

hasn't been at work, but as soon as he was back in

the office that he'd look at and it's probably just an admin error.

Back in Egham, the nine-month wait for Nicky and Wayne

is finally over, as Ghedia tells them they can access the investment.

The funds by now had grown to something like £1.7 million.

We would receive codes and passwords to enter into our portal

and that was incredibly exciting.

Ghedia had shown us bank statements.

So it was it was like, "Wow, this is it."

At 8.30am, Wayne receives three codes to access the account.

So I remember typing it in and when I pressed the button,

I thought "Up's going to come my little account statement and

"I'm going to see there's £1.75 million."

Instead, it says, "Details don't match."

Wayne and Nicky are attempting to access their funds from

the Bank of America account,

but the codes from Rajesh Ghedia are not working.

OK. Well, maybe you just transposed it wrong.

Tried again. Same.

My heart just...bloop. That was, like, horrid moment,

really horrid. You start to feel really nervous and worried.

So I sent him a message, said, "Something's not working."

Ghedia responds that the account couldn't verify where

the money Wayne had put in had come from

and so the bank has blocked access.

So he had to talk it through with the people at

the Bank of America to explain

to them why this had happened and everything would be all right.

It was all very much, "This can be fixed. We'll sort this out."

Agh. And I've got my staff

ringing me up,

and I had to tell them, "Well, it didn't work. There's..."

"We've got some problems, but we're working through them."

We were just keeping our head above

water, but only just.

A few weeks later, we get some new codes and we tried again.

Same thing. Details don't match.

This time Covid started to come in. And strangely,

I got an email straight back from Ghedia,

because of Covid there'd been a lockdown on

the investment accounts. How can this possibly happen?

Ghedia says it will take the bank six to eight weeks

to release Wayne's account.

By this time, I was seriously getting worried.

Wayne couldn't understand it. The money's there.

I've seen the account. Why can't we get it?

Everything from then on was covered with this Covid excuse.

To get this all fixed, we have to fix Covid

and no-one knows how do that.

With the pandemic, Wayne can see how these

technology companies are capitalising on

supporting children's education using online methods.

For Wayne, this is a huge blow.

This is exactly what his product was looking to deliver,

and he can't get it out there. Wayne is desperate now.

He can't look for other investors

because he's invested everything with Ghedia.

He's got no other choice but to trust him.

Two months into Covid, Wayne and Nicky

need to pay their debts and get their business going.

Wayne became increasingly desperate to find a way

to get Bank of America to release his funds

and Mr Ghedia made a number of suggestions to him as

to how they could do that legitimately.

And one of the mechanisms involved Wayne making

a further payment of around £40,000 into

Mr Ghedia's personal business lifestyle hut,

which could then be used through various processes within the bank

to get the £1.5 million released.

I couldn't understand why we had to put more money into something,

especially his own business. But Ghedia...

..has quite a charismatic way

of talking and convincing you. So we did.

Wayne agrees to the £40,000 transfer.

Wayne was so focused on getting

the £1.5 million released that he didn't really question why another

£40,000 was needed.

We're almost at the point where, well, we've come so far

and if this is a way to get it moving, then we'll do it.

We still trusted him.

As Wayne and Nicky wait for

a confirmation of their transfer, a suspicious email arrives.

From what appeared to be a Russian hacker...

..saying, "Thank you, Super Learning. We've gone in

"and we've taken £77,000 in total from the lifestyle hut account."

This email is just so badly written.

There were so many spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes,

you just...you couldn't believe it.

But Ghedia soon confirms the lifestyle hut account

has indeed been hacked.

They'd got into his account and stolen the money.

So that got me suspicious then.

John is also having difficulty getting his investment money

out of his Bank of America account.

Rajesh gets back in touch and he says that there's

a problem with the funding team in Bank of America.

It would just be another week and then it'll paid.

But then after four weeks, still nothing.

And so I say to Rajesh, "Look, mate. You're vice president of

"Bank of America here. This is too much money to play around with."

And I'm threatening to call my lawyer,

and I messaged him multiple times a day and push Rajesh really hard.

And he says that now work Bank of America has intercepted

and that he could potentially be facing suspension

for passing on these kind of rates to me.

Ghedia tells John that the Bank of America have blocked his payment

because Ghedia was not meant to be giving out these preferential rates.

After I spoke to Rajesh about him potentially

being suspended, I didn't hear from him for a while.

But I started to get emails from a different bank

and it turns out they're an American bank, so I figured they

must be associated with or working with Bank of America.

And they told me that they'd be taking over my investments

and that they'd send me all the closing papers

and the money. And I thought, "Wow. This has just been

"a massive misunderstanding."

But with the arrival of lockdown,

John is asked to come directly to the London office

to pick up the money in his account via cheque.

I think it was a bit weird that I was being asked

to pick up a physical cheque in a London office during lockdown.

And I said, "Look, can you not just... Like, you have my details.

"Can you not just transfer me over the money?"

I was like, "This just isn't making sense."

And so I tried to reach out to Rajesh

and he's not returning my calls now.

Money worries aren't the only thing on John's mind.

Lockdown made it awful, because I couldn't visit my mum.

She was incredibly stressed and lonely and isolated.

And I certainly couldn't speak to her about my money problems.

It's a nightmare.

As John is losing faith in Ghedia,

Wayne and Nicky are still reeling after learning

Russian hackers have apparently stolen their £40,000 deposit they

transferred to Ghedia's private business account.

I said to Ghedia, "We could lose our house out of all this.

And I was crying and he said he felt like crying with me, as well.

This was probably the tipping point for me. Receiving the email,

the whole set up, losing money.

Things were just too ludicrous.

Growing suspicious, Wayne contacts the Bank of America

to validate his dealings with Ghedia, sending them all his correspondence.

So the Bank of America response was that they were looking into it.

While Wayne waits to hear back from the bank,

he reaches out to friends for help.

My business partner, Gerard, in Australia and his son,

who's a major in computer science,

had done a lot of in-depth forensics on the emails' headers

and realised that they weren't coming all from Bank of America

and they were coming from different places.

That's when I started to get suspicious that

Rajesh Ghedia probably wasn't who he said he was

and the whole thing was most likely a scam.

John hasn't heard from Ghedia for weeks,

and growing anxious about his money,

also decides to contact the Bank of America.

I spoke to someone in customer services at Bank of America

and I told him who I've been dealing with. I sent them everything,

investment reports and statements. And eventually, they got back to me

and they confirmed that Rajesh does in fact work there,

but he works in IT.

"We can confirm to you that this investment just doesn't exist."

John realises he has paid £130,000 into a fake account.

I felt like I'd lost everything in that moment.

It was just unbelievable.

As John and Wayne come to terms with Ghedia's lies,

Wayne is contacted by Action Fraud,

the national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre.

I received an email saying they had handed the case over

to the City of London Police

and not to tell Rajesh Ghedia anything about it.

I was numb because I'd not ever experienced

anything like this before. I'd never dealt with criminals.

Nicky and I went for a walk.

A police officer at City of London Police then rang me

and the police officer said,

"Yeah, it was confirmed it was a scam."

Wayne went white. He was just so shocked.

Accounts never existed and Ghedia had stolen the money.

Whoa, man.

This is it?

This is... We're done for.

Phew.

We just cried. We just hugged each other, held each other.

Utter, like, phew...

..an almost...nothingness.

Everything that you know is unknown now.

We didn't know how to process it. What does it mean?

Do we lose our life savings and our house?

Wayne and Nicky have been completely manipulated by Ghedia.

He's led people to believe that he is legitimate and credible.

And this plan that he's carefully concocted

is something that he's masterfully done.

Following Wayne's report, the City of London Police

and the Bank of America commence their separate investigations.

All the while, Wayne and Nicky must keep up pretences.

A few days after we are out and who should we pass

that was walking along was Ghedia and his wife.

It was extremely difficult for us not to get angry with him.

We just had to be normal because that's what

the police asked us to do. I remember Wayne saying,

"Just drive straight past." And I said, "You can't do that.

"They know the car." We pulled over and had to talk to them.

Trying to keep it really light. How are you?

Ghedia doesn't know that we suspect him by now.

And in the meantime, Ghedia was still telling me the money was

going to come on what was the third and last date,

the 22nd of June.

The day finally arrives for the third attempt.

So by this time, we'd sort of given up all hope of getting access

to any £1.5 million. We just wanted to get our money back.

But once again, the codes don't work.

And that's when Wayne rang Ghedia.

I said, "I know you're a con man. I know you've stolen the money."

And Ghedia got nasty.

He knew where we lived and he had friends.

He would send people around with guns and baseball bats

and would get us. It was all very threatening.

I yelled back at him and then

he hung up on me.

We were like, "Well, yeah. He does know where we live.

"He's been to our house and he could have people."

We did talk to the police.

They said if there's any trouble at all to ring 999.

They were very, very dark, dark days.

DOORBELL RINGS After Wayne and Nicky confront

their investor, Rajesh Ghedia, about his lies,

he has now threatened the couple and their family.

Wayne was really worried for his family.

I was worried for Wayne and Nicky and the girls, too.

They are good people, hard-working people.

They really don't deserve this.

Ghedia's driven by his own greed and his own desire,

without any ounce of understanding or empathy for

the way in which he's hurting other people.

He's leading a lifestyle that he can't sustain,

and that's now finally catching up with him.

Ongoing investigations into Ghedia's activities are coming to fruition.

The Bank of America internal team had done the investigation,

found a lot of evidence on his laptop, work laptop.

So we know that all the mails got into the system.

I learnt that Ghedia was behind the Russian hacker email.

I learnt that he was an employee of Bank of America,

but not in the role he said he was.

To have a full-time job and to be a full-time con artist,

that's going to be significant stress.

He doesn't seem to be fazed by that, from what we can see.

He's juggling these various different scams

and seems to be getting a kick out of it.

Mr Ghedia refused to cooperate with either the police investigation

or with Bank of America disciplinary proceedings.

He was then terminated by the bank.

Not long after that, he gets arrested.

The police had sort of indicated to us when they would do it.

Police rolled up at his place early in the morning, I believe.

Went in there, started searching his property, where they found more

incriminating evidence.

Police discover fake medical documents that are clearly part

of another elaborate scheme.

In October 2020, Mr Ghedia contacted his pension provider

and told them that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

and that he had fewer than 12 months to live.

DIAL TONE

Hi, how can I help you today?

Ghedia repeats this story with five pension providers

and claims £86,000.

But police go on to discover Ghedia just couldn't stop there.

In January 2021, Mr Ghedia then

contacted his life insurance provider

and put in a claim under his life insurance policy.

He was then able to secure

a payout of £1.2 million from the life insurance provider,

which he did while he was under

police investigation and monitoring.

To fake his own cancer in order to get

an insurance payout... How low are you going to go?

He was on bail at the time! It's unbelievable.

He's not only manipulating people,

he's now gone onto manipulating organisations.

He's faked documents and he's looking to see

how far he can take this.

So as much as this might be driven by the finances,

this is also driven by his own psychological gain, making him feel

powerful and in control.

We were really, really happy that we managed to expose what he'd been up

to and stop him from doing it to other people.

I could have been the victim also, because at one time he was asking...

He said, "I've invested in restaurants. If you want,

"I can invest." It is very scary.

Ghedia is brought to Southwark Crown Court to face up to his crimes.

I decided to go to the court sentencing.

He didn't look at me, but I know he knew I was there

because they called my name out in court.

Mr Ghedia was in a large glass box in the middle of the courtroom.

He seemed somewhat dishevelled.

He didn't strike me as any sort of mastermind criminal or otherwise.

He'd portrayed himself to me as a high flying, rich entrepreneur,

but I saw him there as the criminal

who'd been stripped of all these assets and had nothing

and that was satisfying.

It was there that we discovered that we weren't

the only ones, and some of them were his family.

I mean, how can you do that?

He had taken £600,000 off a number of people, off six individuals.

I mean, never in a million years would

I expect that someone that I considered to be

a close friend would rob me of everything I had.

In total, Rajesh Ghedia stole over

£1.8 million.

He admitted to over 30 counts

of fraud.

They had so much conclusive evidence that it was

going to be pretty difficult to try and

talk your way out of that one. It's all there.

In the court they read out my victim impact statement

and it spoke of the fact that he had actively used

the passing of my father to manipulate me.

He's the most callous, deceitful,

manipulative person I've ever come across in my life.

Ghedia is sentenced to six years

and nine months in prison.

He doesn't he doesn't say I'm sorry.

My worry is he'll get out and he'll just do it again.

I was happy that he got caught.

But at the same time, it didn't solve the problem of my friends.

Give them back their money!

For John, there is some hope after he learns

that his own bank may have some culpability in his misfortune.

What we learned was that when I went to the bank,

I'd said I want to make this large investment

to a Bank of America account.

The person behind the till should have said,

"Well, this isn't going into a Bank of America...account, sir.

"It's going into a different personal account."

His bank is found negligent and John is returned his entire

original investment of £130,000.

I know that I'm definitely one of the lucky ones.

There's other people that haven't had their money back.

So I'm eternally grateful for my very fortunate scenario.

In the months that follow, Wayne and Nicky must deal with

the fallout from Ghedia's deceit,

having lost over £400,000 between their investment,

interests rates and staff costs.

We are still out of pocket

and it's been a huge financial strain on us.

We got £130,000 back from some of the banks.

I missed opportunities. I know we had...

We had the education software.

That definitely would have made sales and made money.

Your credit ratings trashed. Who's going to help that?

You're behind on a lot of critical payments, like mortgages.

No-one helps you with that.

It's stopped a lot of the things we wanted to do for us,

for our kids, our family.

And psychologically, we still have huge, huge scars

and wounds from what happened.

I just think about it a lot.

I think of what we could have done differently.

I think we did as much as we could.

DOORBELL RINGS Rajesh.

I was an easy target for him because I wanted something,

I was passionate about it. I was like putty in his hands.

The longer-term implications for victims of such scams are huge.

Their ability to trust other people is impacted. Their ability

to trust their own decision-making will be affected, as well.

And that is going to take some time to rebuild.

This whole thing has gone on for years.

But also, we are the sort of people

where this is not going to stop us.

We've still got our dreams.

We still know what we want to do.

We're still together. We support each other.

It's not been easy at all. We have got our children,

so that is a big comfort to us.

It has rocked a lot of things,

but luckily, we've been able to weather it,

but I can see why a lot of people don't.

Today, Wayne perseveres in his to fight

to be fully compensated for his losses

and to prevent others from being victims of fraud.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media