Fraudster jailed for £740m mortgage scam faces jail AGAIN

Disgraced property tycoon jailed for masterminding £740M mortgage scam faces prison again as he is ordered to hand over £92K donation he made to girls’ school attended by Cara Delevingne and Sienna Miller

• Francis Holland School named theatre after fraudster Achilleas Kallakis, 54 
• He must hand back £92k within 28 days or face returning to jail, a judge said 

A disgraced property tycoon who masterminded a £740million mortgage scam must hand over a £92,500 donation given back to him by a top private school after he was jailed for fraud. 

Serial fraudster Achilleas Kallakis faces returning to jail for a year if he does not repay the cash given back to him by girl’s school Francis Holland School – whose past pupils including actress Sienna Miller, 41, and model Cara Delevingne, 30. 

The Church of England School, next to Regent’s Park in central London, named its theatre after the 54-year-old following his £250,000 gift in 2005 but cut ties with the conman after he was jailed in 2013 for his part in Britain’s biggest mortgage scam.

A judge today gave the convicted fraudster 28 days to pay back the cash – or he will be sent to prison for a year. 

Kallakis and co-defendant Alex Williams were originally jailed for seven years – later increased to 11 – after being found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud in 2013. They duped banks out of more than £740million between 2003 and 2008 in the sophisticated property and luxury yacht scam. 

Serial fraudster Achilleas Kallakis and co-defendant Alex Williams were originally jailed for seven years – later increased to 11 – for their £740million mortgage scam

Kallakis faces returning to jail for a year if he does not repay the cash given back to him by girl’s school Francis Holland School – whose past pupils including actress Sienna Miller, 41, and model Cara Delevingne, 30. The school gave back more than £92,000 of his £250,000 donation in 2005 after he was convicted of fraud

The pair had both changed their names after pleading guilty to forgery in 1995 after making £85,000 by selling people from America and the Middle East forged aristocratic titles, claiming they owned ancient rights dating to the Domesday Book of 1086.

READ MORE: Leading £21,000-a-year girls’ private school attended by Sienna Miller and Cara Delevingne named its theatre after a fraudster following £250,000 donation, court hears

At a confiscation hearing at Southwark Crown Court, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said money given back to the fraudster by the independent school represented the proceeds of crime.

Kallakis, who was known as ‘The Don’ in high-stakes games on the international poker circuit, claimed he did not have an interest in the money, which he said was paid by the family trust.

Judge Tony Baumgartner on Friday granted the SFO’s application to seize the cash and said Kallakis, who was not in court, must pay £92,500 within 28 days or face a year in prison.

‘I am satisfied that the donation to the school came from the surplus monies of the fraud committed by the defendant and his co-conspirators,’ he said in a written judgment.

Following his 2013 convictions, Kallakis was found to have a ‘criminal lifestyle’ and to have benefited from the scam to the tune of £95million.

He maintained a fleet of chauffeur-driven Bentleys, a private plane, a private helicopter, a luxury yacht moored in Monaco harbour and a collection of high-value artworks. 

He was ordered to pay £3.25million based on his available assets, which at the time included a half share in the £4.5million family home in Brompton Square, Knightsbridge. 

Judge Tony Baumgartner on Friday granted said Kallakis (pictured), who was not in court, must pay £92,500 within 28 days or face a year in prison

Other assets, nominally valued at zero, were a multimillion-pound villa in Mykonos, Greece, containing an Andy Warhol dollar sign artwork, and a £250,000 Queen’s Club debenture.

Kallakis satisfied the confiscation order in 2015 but the SFO brought him back to court for the money returned by the school, which was attended by his daughter Erinoula at the time of the donation.

The ‘Kallakis Theatre’ was named in his honour after he ‘negotiated the terms of the donation’ with the headmistress and bursar, said Christopher Convey, representing the SFO.

Payments of £75,000 and £175,000 were made in 2005 from his Swiss bank account into the school’s account in the Channel Islands.

In June 2020, Kallakis’s son Michalis launched a civil action in the High Court following the removal of the family name from the theatre and in July 2021 a settlement was reached for the school to pay £104,500 – including £12,000 in costs.

SFO director Lisa Osofsky said: ‘Today’s ruling demonstrates our determination to go after fraudsters, no matter when they committed a crime or where they hide their assets.

‘In the last two years alone, we have recovered 100 per cent of the funds we have gone after – almost £140million in proceeds of crime – including from cases a decade after prosecution like Kallakis.’

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