Merseyside police are this weekend looking for a South Coast Crime Syndicate who are said to have conned a Merseyside man out of millions of pounds in the summer of 2014.
The Merseyside Police serious crimes squad is today sending a squad of detectives to the Southampton area after a Merseyside resident complained that he has seen millions of pounds taken from him in a sting like operation by a gang of heartless fraudsters. The operation which is being called "Operation We go again" says that it is aware of several suspects most of which live in the Southampton area.
The man who made his complaint to police shortly after 5pm on Saturday from a payphone in West ham's Upton Park football ground wishes to remain nameless but is being given the code name "Brendon".
"Brendon's" problems started in June of this year when he was left a substancial sum by a relative who had sold an original Luis Suarez to a Spanish collector and bequeathed this money to Brendon on the strict proviso that he spend it within two months.
This alerted the gang in Southampton who immediately contacted Brendon and said they had several sure fire investments that he would be interested in.
Initially they seemed friendly and were not seemingly asking much money, a video was sent to Brendon which showed a footballer scoring plenty of goals and even beating a few defenders for pace, Brendon estimated the players age to be around 27 and that he seemed to be scoring against a series of teams who looked like Barcelona and Real Madrid, Brendon has subsequently learned that they were in fact Dagenham and Redbridge as well as Hartlepool in their away kit. However by then he had already written a cheque for £4.5 million with the promise the player would arrive after the World Cup in Brazil
Initially though he was pleased with his purchase and contacted the gang again and bought another player from them, again after watching a video that appeared to show the player who Brendon subsequently learned was Adam Lallana beating a number of opponents in succession, he know knows this was actually the same opponent four times. Again the gang whose front man appeared to be a middle aged bald man who claimed to have managed Charlton and had the freedom of Bishops Stortford demanded payment up front which Brendon did using his credit card for £25 million.
But whilst he awaited the arrival of his two new aquisitions Brendon was offered a third player, the bald man who claimed his name was Leslie this time arrived with a foreigner in tow who seemed to be Dutch, they told Brendon they had another one for his collection and this one was the best and a snip at £20 million and that in fact he was only this cheap because his head was already in Liverpool so it would save on the post and packaging costs that had pushed up the Lallana price.
When the merchandise was delivered Brendon was shocked to find that his first purchase was actually nearly 33 and far from the youthful payer he had seen on the video, however before he could do anything the man had grabbed a shirt and was parading in front of the local press talking about dreams come true.
However at this stage Brendon still hoped that the goods were genuine Premier league footballers as he had been promised but he was to get a rude awakening over the next few weeks and he started to smell a rat.
He dug out the receipts and phoned Leslie and asked for his money back,at this stage Leslie who had been up to now all sweetness and light, became aggressive and told him "This is not John Lewis, we dont price match and we dont give money back if you return the goods within 30 days"
Brendon became frightened when Leslie turned up at Anfield in mid August with two thousand of his minders in tow and they spent 90 minutes laughing at him and singing songs with veiled language and several words Brendon found abusive.
However he decided to see if the goods would work better in time, but on Saturday 20th September he had had enough and when he again phoned Leslie and threatened legal action he was again rebuffed, although in fairness he could hardly hear what Leslie was saying as there appeared to be a party going on in the background.
He then contacted Merseyside Police who revealed that he had been the victim of an elaborate fraud and that he wasn't the first person to have been caught out in the Liverpool area, indeed a man who they referred to only as "Kenny D " had been caught out only a couple of years earlier and had been robbed of £35 million by a gang who seemed to be based on Tyneside.
Although Merseyside Police are taking Brendon's complaints seriously they have warned him that he faces not getting any of his money back, initial enquiries indicate that the money has already been laundered, that the gang who specialise in selling sub standard premier quality players and re investing in the genuine article and that the money is now spread across Europe and that interpol has indicated that it can be traced as far wide as Holland, Scotland, Romania and Austria
It could have been worse for Brendon though, before he smelt a rat he was about to spend more of his inheiritance with Leslie, but smelt a rat when he was shown a man on crutches with a £30 million price tag round his neck.
Of his £90 million pound windfall he estimates that he gave around £50 million to Leslie who he said was not all bad as he offered to reduce the price if Brendon would take an original Mayuka off his hands.
POLICE UPDATE
Merseyside Police have advised all Liverpool residents to stay inside and keep their doors and transfer windows closed till they catch the South Coast fraudsters who have been preying on gullible football managers in the area recently, although they stress that they are no danger to the public till January 1st