Fantasy life of fraudster 'Laird' revealed in documentary on conman
We look at Tony Williams - aka The Laird - and several other white collar criminals.
He was known as Lord Williams or “the Laird” to the people of the tiny Highland village of Tomintoul in Banffshire. Yet to his work colleagues 600 miles away in London, he was Tony Williams, an unremarkable accountant at the Metropolitan Police.
Adored by villagers in Tomintoul after he renovated the hotel, backed local businesses and invested in properties, cash-splashing Lord Williams became a much-loved member of the community. So the locals were blown away when they discovered Tony was not an aristocrat but a fraudster who had pinched £5million from his employer’s coffers.
For eight years Williams got away with his Walter Mitty fantasy lifestyle until he was caught in 1994 and sent to jail for seven-and-a-half years. It was one of the most extraordinary fraud cases in UK history but, after an initial flurry of interest, the bizarre tale has not been mentioned for more than 30 years .
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Now professor David Wilson delves into the intriguing case in an upcoming episode of his BBC Crime Files: Scams and Scandals series.
Here we look back at The Laird and nine other white collar criminals.
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He was known as Lord Williams or ‘the Laird’ to the people of the tiny Highland village of Tomintoul, Banffshire.
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Yet to his work colleagues 600 miles away in London, he was Tony Williams, an unremarkable accountant at the Metropolitan Police.
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Lord Tony Williams' coat of arms.
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But it was in Tomintoul where his stolen wealth made most impact - between 1986 and 1994 he bought cottages, the Clockhouse tearooms (pictured), the Manse and the Gordon Hotel, which he had restored at the cost of £1.5million.
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For eight years Williams got away with his Walter Mitty fantasy lifestyle until he was caught in 1994 and sent to jail for seven and a half years.
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CHARLES PONZI The Italian businessman and swindler, who operated in the 1920s invented the most elaborate investment scheme ever perpetrated.
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Ponzi earned the equivalent of $20million in just a few years. His fraudulent investing scam generated returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors has been attempted by several fraudsters and has been nicknamed the Ponzi scheme.
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