A gang of Seventh-Day Adventists in London conned their fellow churchgoers into giving them millions of pounds to invest, which they then spent on luxury flats, holidays and cars, a court was told yesterday.

The four men are accused of posing as City traders to convince members of their community to invest in bogus schemes that they said would have returns of as much as 25 times the original investments. More than a thousand victims handed over a total of £3.2 million over seven months.

At one point so much money was coming in that they are said to have needed a cash-counting machine at their prestigious front business, JNL Ltd, based near Liverpool Street in the City of London.

The group allegedly bought a £23,000 Mercedes and a £26,000 BMW, and flew first class to the Middle East and put down a deposit on an apartment worth £4.75 million.

The alleged mastermind, Lindani Mangena, 24, of Romford, East London, and three recruits variously deny fraudulent trading and money laundering between July 2003 and March 2004.

Stephen Winberg, for the prosecution, told Southwark Crown Court yesterday: “The aim, as with all frauds, was to get victims to part with their money. The victims were told that money that was obtained from them was going to be invested on their behalf. It was not. Hardly any of it was invested. Instead, large chunks of it were spent on renting and buying multimillion-pound flats, Mercedes and other expensive cars, travel to luxury hotels, and other luxury spending for the benefit of the man behind the scheme and his friends. That is what this case is about: ‘Give us the money’.”

Mr Mangena is said to have set up the operation soon after dropping out of university in the summer of 2003. He allegedly recruited Dean Hinkson, 29, Curtis Powell, 31, and Jordan Huie, 25, to help him to lure potential victims by offering a range of investment opportunities.

Mr Winberg said that the jurors might be surprised at how easily the victims had handed over their money. “Most of them had worked hard for it, often in lowly paid jobs, but the fraud had two main hooks to pull the money in,” he said.

“First, the victims were promised staggering rates of return. The rates of return were so attractive that people tended to suspend their judgment. Most of the victims were members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and so was the man behind the fraud and the other defendants who sit with him in the dock.

“You may think, as you hear the evidence, that the victims were much more ready to believe what they were told because it came from members of the same tight-knit religious community.

“They naively accepted the absurd claims of the returns that they could make on the money they gave to the defendants, and their suspicions were not aroused by the absence of things like receipts that you might expect when you invested money.

“The man behind the scheme, being a member of this religious community, knew that he would be trusted because of his shared background, and took ruthless advantage of this.”

Mr Mangena is said to have told his victims that he was skilled as a spread trader on the stock exchange. In reality, he invested only £12,000 of the money he conned – and he lost half of it.

The court was told how, in October 2003, Mr Mangena and Mr Huie moved into a £650-per-week apartment. Soon afterwards, Mr Hinkson moved into the same block, having lived in a council flat. The next month he bought a £23,000 Mercedes and Mr Powell paid £26,000 for a BMW.

The court was told that, in December 2003, Mr Hinkson, Mr Huie and Mr Mangena flew first class to Abu Dhabi, staying at a five-star Sheraton hotel. In the same month Mr Mangena put down a deposit of £15,000 to reserve a £4.75 million apartment.

Mr Mangena denies fraudulent trading, carrying on unauthorised investment business, and one charge of money laundering between July 31, 2003 and March 1, 2004.

Mr Hinkson, of West Croydon, Mr Huie, of Brixton, both South London, and Mr Powell, of Thornton Heath, southwest London, deny communicating an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity between October 3, 2003, and April 5, 2004.

The trial continues.

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