the widow of a terminally ill man who was conned out of almost half a million pounds by a close friend condemned the fraudster as a 'despicable man' world famous lighting architect, jonathan speirs, was persuaded to part with a total of £476,864 by friend and neighbour keith cameron through a complicated ruse now jonathan's widow elizabeth speirs, 58, has revealed the heartless crime has left the family struggling for cash she has been forced to sell off her home in edinburgh which she shared with her husband for 24 years heartless: neighbour keith cameron convinced his terminally ill friend jonathan speirs to part with nearly £500,000 in a complicated ruse  cameron, 54, conned jonathan   who was dying of stomach cancer   out of thousands of pounds by claiming his company, chase telecom ltd, required money to win a valuable contract to supply telecom services the devious businessman repeatedly claimed the company was trading well and that investors had pumped millions of pounds of money into the business cameron, who was a close family friend of the speirs, insisted jonathan could expect to receive a return on his investment of around £2 million within two years but it later emerged the entire operation was a lie and that cameron, also from edinburgh, had been using jonathan's cash to maintain a luxury lifestyle the father of two, who has now been declared bankrupt, was found guilty of fraud at edinburgh sheriff court on wednesday and will be sentenced next month jonathan's wife elizabeth said the cruel scheme had left her and her two daughters, lucie and erin, in 'dire straits financially' tragic: elizabeth speirs is being forced to sell the home she shared with her late husband jonathan (right) after cruel scheme left them broke  elizabeth, who recently underwent radiation therapy for early stage breast cancer, said:  'it hasn't quite sunk in   i'm just very grateful that the jury saw through him 'he's just a despicable man, and what he did to my husband   who was a good man   is just awful, and the financial situation he has left us in is awful 'i'm going to have to sell my house soon, as i can't afford to stay 'i never got a chance to grieve for my husband because i found this out right away i feel like i have been robbed of so much in my life   my husband, a friend, and the chance to build a new life for me and my daughters 'my husband had withdrawn money from a policy that he had taken out in case either he or his [business] partner became ill, so that he could exit his company without any financial impact 'the camerons have been friends with us for a very long time they were people we trusted' on wednesday, the court heard cameron had a mortgage of £134m million, had bought cars for his wife and daughter, took holidays in a luxury villa and sent his two daughters to an edinburgh private school one of his daughters also attended the american academy of drama and the arts in new york and had a student flat near the empire state building victim: the late jonathan speirs was duped into paying £500,000 to cameron, who spent the money on funding a luxury lifestyle  cameron had signed off three payments to jonathan amounting to £75,935, in what were supposedly dividends from the telecoms company but it later turned out to be  jonathan's own money funnelled back to him elizabeth said: 'he [cameron] did it because he was broke 'our money paid for two minis   one for his wife and one for his daughter it paid for the school fees for his daughters, and holidays to portugal and spain 'he has been living a lie for many, many years he hasn't worked since 2009   since then he has purportedly been setting up a business he just got used to the good life and he didn't want to give it up 'but his wife and his daughters are not implicated in this   i want to make that clear 'it's not something you would have been looking out for when somebody comes back to you with good states of account and it's a friend who you know has a good track record, you think everything is going to be okay 'it's not something you would expect of a friend 'i'm 58 and should be thinking of retiring but keith cameron spent the money on his own family and a lavish lifestyle'
mazarine 2million unconsummate prosceniums
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