Former Imperial Consolidated director jailed for 3 ½ years

A former director of investment firm Imperial Consolidated Group has been sentenced 3 ½ years imprisonment for his part in a global fraud conspiracy.

William "Bill" Godley, who was sentenced today at Blackfriars Crown Court, was also disqualified from acting as a company director for six years, says the SFO.

Godley, together with three other company executives, was charged in 2006 with a single count of conspiracy to defraud in an internationally promoted scheme attracting over £250m from approximately 3,000 investors.

The investigation was conducted with Lincolnshire Police.

Investors believed their money would be used to finance a commercial loans business from which they would gain interest. The fraud operated from premises on a former RAF station at Binbrook in Lincolnshire.

Godley entered a plea of guilty ahead of trial and sentencing was adjourned until the conclusion of proceedings against all defendants. During the course of the first trial in 2008 and a retrial in 2010 the three other defendants were acquitted.

In passing sentence on Godley, Mrs Justice Gloster said: "On any basis this is a very serious fraud in which substantial sums of money have been lost by investors, many of whom have suffered considerable hardship".

She added had he not entered a guilty plea the "starting point" of his sentence would have been seven years.