Gang of conmen who used Monopoly money to trick jewellery dealers in £7m scam are jailed for a total of 22 years
The toy cash was sandwiched between real euro notes in piles of money as high-value transactions took place
AN "INGENIOUS" gang of conmen who used Monopoly money to trick jewellery dealers in a £7million scam have gone straight to jail for a total of 22 years.
The fake money was placed in between real euro notes in piles of money as high-value deals took place.
On other occasions the word "Monopoly" or "facsimile" was covered by paper bands used to hold the notes together.
Consequently, dealers were duped despite using a pen or machine to count the money, which resembles authentic currency but is lighter, a court heard.
They only realised they had been conned after transferring the valuables to the crooks, by which times it was too late.
The gang even built their own desk where a man could hide and swap the genuine and fake notes in the drawers as the deals went on around him.
The biggest single con saw celebrity jewellery dealer John Calleija - whose clients included Colin Firth and Zara Phillips - defrauded of a whopping £6.1million.
Mr Calleija was told an investor had five million euros to buy diamonds and a gemologist – apparently Accamo – went to inspect his stock of precious stones.
Gang leader Gianni Accamo posed as a gem dealer and went to inspect the precious stones.
A deal was struck at a Covent Garden hotel where Mr Calleija and his bodyguard used a cash counting machine to total 7.7million euros, bundled into 500 euro notes.
Mr Calleija then turned to put the cash counting machine away – the moment at which the real euros were allegedly switched for bundles of fake notes with “facsimile” written on them – concealed by paper bands on the outside.
The diamonds were then collected from Mr Calleija’s shop.
Prosecuting, David Hughes said: “You can imagine his horror when he goes to check the cash.
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“It is immediately apparent it is not the same that he had counted in the hotel. It’s counterfeit.
“At some point during that fatal turn around to put that cash counting machine away, the real money has been switched."
He was jailed for six years on Friday for his role in Leeds and London frauds after previously pleading guilty to his part in the London scam.
Serbian born Djordjevic was jailed for seven years and four months after admitting conspiracy to commit fraud.
Djordjevic's son Juliano Nikolic, of Nottingham, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud in Bristol and money laundering and was jailed for four years and four months.
His brother Bruno Nikolic, of Gainsborough, Lincs., admitted conspiracy to commit fraud in the Bristol scam and was jailed for 22 months.
Dusica Nikolic, of Nottingham, had previously admitted concealing criminal property and money laundering and was jailed last September for two and a half years.
Judge Julian Lambert told them: "The fraud operated required you men to establish confidence in your victims so it was thought you could be trusted.
"You operated as a crime group, using reconnaissance and meticulous planning.
"It required considerable ingenuity and effort to establish dishonest ends."
Most of the fraudsters were arrested in November 2014 at an address in Nottingham, where police found counterfeit notes and £150,000 in sterling, euros and dollars.
Officers also retrieved stolen jewellery hidden under soil in plant pots and a desk cabinet with a false front, where a person could have hidden to swtich notes.
The convicts now face confiscation proceedings in court under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
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