Cruise fraudster convicted of defrauding more than 180 people worldwide

A fraudster who scammed more than 180 victims out of more than £400,000 has been convicted at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Richard Lester, 56, of Swifts Green Road in Luton, was unanimously convicted on Tuesday 17 December of fraudulent trading and concealing criminal property after he was caught at the head of a Ponzi-style scam selling ‘cruise miles’.
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Miles were bought through agents and exchanged for cruises through Lester’s website at heavily discounted prices, but no cruise was booked for them.
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Some only discovered this when they turned up at ports for holidays and were turned away by the cruise operators.
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He will be sentenced at the same court on 11 February 2025.
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In 2009 Lester set up Cruisevoucher – a scheme where customers would buy vouchers for cruises up to three years in advance, and the money they spent was used to pay for earlier customers’ cruises who had brought vouchers the same way.
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Lester’s business offered customers the opportunity to take these cruises at heavily discounted rates.
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He met future victims and recruited some as agents for his business on these cruises.
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In 2011 he changed his business model and renamed the company ‘Cruisemiles’. After this point Lester quickly stopped booking the cruises his customers believe they would be taking and keeping their money for himself.
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Much like airmiles, customers could now buy miles to be exchanged for cruises. However, many found the number of miles required to book these cruises regularly and rapidly increased.
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His agents, who had themselves bought thousands of pounds of miles, would earn a commission by selling more miles to customers, but were just as trapped in Lester’s web with no way to reclaim the money they had lost.
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Over this time disgruntled victims began to report the scam, and in July 2013 the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau contacted Essex Police.
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We discovered victims across the world – in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany and Japan.
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Lester used several aliases to avoid justice, going by Henry Lester, Les Richards, Lord Lester, Richie Lescovitch and Barry Williams.
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Over three years he stole £406,856.39 from 184 people.
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PC Leanne Smith, who has been investigating Cruisemiles and Lester since 2014, said:

“This has been a large and complex investigation, with officers gathering dozens of statements from victims.
“I’d like to thank our Detective Simon Gray, who has since joined City of London Police, and our barristers Andrew Evans and Sophia Kerridge, for their commitment to this case.
“Securing justice for these victims meant scouring several bank accounts to trace exactly where their money has gone.
“All their money leads back to Lester. His greed left hundreds of people thousands of pounds out of pocket.
“They were tricked into committing more and more money to his scheme, unaware that money was going directly into Lester’s pocket.
“Many of the cruise companies they were expecting to holiday with had no record they were ever due on board their ships.
“Lester poured funds into a lavish lifestyle he bragged about to the same victims’ he defrauded.
“Money was frittered on online poker websites and his other business interests.
“He’s now been found guilty thanks to the testimonies of those who wouldn’t believe his excuses and we wait to hear the judges' sentence in 2025.”
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