Jail for career conman from Cambridgeshire who used multiple names to defraud companies out of hundreds of thousands of pounds
A career conman has been jailed for more than eight years after a court heard how he regularly changed his name by deed poll and falsified his CV to con companies out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Simon Squires, 49, of Highfields, Caldecote, went by other names including Simon Ball and Simon Brown to evade justice.
He was jailed in 2013 and again in 2017 for defrauding victims out of huge sums of money.
But he continued offending when released from jai and used a CV with falsified information to obtain senior jobs at two companies.
He changed his name by deed poll so that his employers would not uncover his criminal record.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary launched an investigation, arresting and charging Squires with fraud offences, before releasing him on bail.
But he continued with the deception, this time under the alias of Matthew Ball, fraudulently gaining employment as a chief commercial director at a personal care product company in Norfolk, before moving to a technology company in Oxford.
While in these posts, he rewarded himself financially while causing substantial losses to the businesses - claiming a total of around £110,000 from the companies.
Officers from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) arrested him in February 2022.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation, four counts of money laundering and 10 breaches of the Serious Crime Prevention Order that he received when convicted in 2017.
On Friday, he was jailed for eight years and nine months at Cambridge Crown Court, where the judge described Squires as "a serious danger to honest business people”.
A Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) investigation has been launched to ensure Squires does not profit from his actions.
About £30,000 in his bank account has been frozen and a number of watches believed to be worth more than £100,000 have been seized as the financial investigations continue.
The probe was led by ERSOU’s Proactive Economic Crime Team, a new team funded by both the Home Office and the City of London Police to target fraud and economic crime across the Eastern region.
PC Kane Casburn, investigating officer, said: “Squires made a career out of defrauding businesses out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, lying and cheating his way into senior positions.
“He clearly thought he was above the law and continued to deceive company after company, even while on court bail for other fraud offences.
“Unfortunately for him, he was unable to outrun the law and his actions have now caught up with him. I hope that this jail sentence is enough to make him think twice about any future convincing scams, and our financial investigators will be working hard to ensure that his assets are uncovered so that he fully repays all of his ill-gotten gains.
“This case is a great example of what our new Proactive Economic Crime Team is capable of. We will continue to target fraudsters operating across our region and ensure they are made to face the consequences of their actions.”
For advice on fraud, visit the Cambridgeshire Constabulary website at https://bit.ly/3PNOoy2.
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