The Times - UK (2020-10-20)

the times | Tuesday October 20 2020 2GM 7

News

A fraudster who posed as a senior

stockbroker swindled a businesswom-

an and her friends of about £700,

before squandering the money on

holidays and gambling.

Sam Whittingslow, 29, “groomed” Jill

Kelly, who is in her fifties, into investing

in a bogus bonds scheme after the two

formed a relationship, she told a court.

Fraudster jailed after scamming businesswoman out of £550,

Jonathan Ames Legal Editor She also referred him to colleagues,
whom he defrauded of £200,000.
Whittingslow created two online
alter egos that purported to be senior
investment managers who promised to
double investors’ money. He was yes-
terday jailed for three years.
Ms Kelly, who was described in court
as a “businesswoman with substantial
assets”, agreed to invest in five bonds
before being persuaded to make further

investments. She also recommended

Whittingslow to a businessman who

lost £60,000. Police found that inves-

tors handed the conman £775,600 of

which only £96,941 was repaid under

the guise of a return on investment.

Ms Kelly lost a total of £551,300. She

said she had become “friends” with one

of the bogus investment managers, not

realising she was communicating with

Whittingslow. In a statement she said:

“I feel like I have been groomed, be-

trayed and taken advantage of.”

Yesterday at Minshull Street crown

court in Manchester, Whittingslow, of

Hyde, Tameside, admitted five charges

of fraud between 2017 and last year.

He had worked for the Manchester-

based stockbrokers Pilling & Co and

had known Ms Kelly since he was a

child. The court heard that he sent her

a Facebook message in 2017. Kate Ham-

mond, for the prosecution, told the

court that the two started to meet “and

it developed into a sexual relationship”.

Whittingslow was reported to police

when investments failed to pay out on

their maturity dates. Julian Goode, in

mitigation, said that Whittingslow was

“genuinely remorseful”.

Judge Paul Lawton said that Whit-

tingslow had left Ms Kelly’s “confidence

and trust in fellow mankind in shreds”.

Diana, Princess of Wales described her

marriage as “hell from day one” and

asked whether there were conspiracies

to have her killed as she sought to go

public with her misery as a royal.

Diana’s interview with the BBC’s

Panorama in 1995 was a pivotal moment

in royal history. However, it can now be

revealed that it was not her first attempt

to give her account of her relationship

with the Prince of Wales.

Sir Max Hastings, the former

editor of The Daily Telegraph, said that

Diana approached him in an attempt

to get across her side of the story

but he decided not to run anything

because she appeared vulnerable and

impressionable.

A Channel 4 documentary marking

the 25th anniversary of the programme

says that Diana told Sir Max that she

“hated” Prince Charles and that he was

Meghan and Harry to miss

Christmas at Sandringham

Valentine Low

Diana tried to tell her story

months before Panorama

Valentine Low
not fit to be king. Sir Max told Diana:
The Truth Behind the Interview, to be
broadcast tomorrow, that in a meeting
three months before Panorama she was
“terribly anxious for my side of this to
come out”.
He said that he spent nearly two
hours with her. “She put on a wonderful
show. Absolutely gripping stuff. It
became clear how much she hated
Charles. I said, ‘Were there ever happy
times?’ She said, ‘No, the marriage was
hell from day one’.
“She said that all she cared about was
William’s succession to the throne. She
said to me quite explicitly, ‘I don’t think
Charles can do it.’ The outcome she
wanted to see was for Charles to stand
aside as heir to the throne and for
William to occupy the throne.”
He declined to publish her account. “I
felt that my job was to try and help them
keep the lid on the worst of this, rather
than to lift it off.” He added: “Diana said

a lot of stuff on several occasions which

I thought were for the fairies. She asked

me what I knew about a conspiracy to

have her put down. I said well, it

sounded absolutely crazy to me. But

she did believe this sort of stuff.”

It reflected a “vulnerability” that

made one feel “desperately sorry for

her”, Sir Max said. She may have been

“streetwise” and “an enchantress”, he

said, but she was also “not very bright”.

The spark that prompted Diana to go

on television was when Charles

admitted adultery in a 1994 interview

with Jonathan Dimbleby. The Channel

4 programme reveals, however, that in

a first interview at Windsor, never

broadcast, Charles refused to admit that

he had been unfaithful. Sir Max said:

“Somebody convinced him, ‘Look, sir,

this is going to come out sooner or later.

Wouldn’t it be better if it comes out in a

sympathetic film in sympathetic hands?’

And he fell for it.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are

expected to miss the traditional royal

family Christmas with the Queen at

Sandringham for the second year.

The couple were absent last year

because they were in Canada for six

weeks. This year the pandemic and the

duchess’s impending court case against

The Mail on Sunday, mean they are like-

ly to stay in California.

A source said that this Christmas

“would be a year they would want to

spend in their own house”. The

source said that the couple,

who now live in Santa Barbara

with their son, Archie, would

have returned to Britain

several times since their

departure in March had it

not been for travel re-

strictions. When they do

come back they will have to self-isolate

for two weeks.

January 11 is the first day of the duch-

ess’s case in the High Court where she

is seeking damages for alleged misuse

of private information, copyright in-

fringement and breach of the Data Pro-

tection Act in relation to a letter to her

father published by the newspaper. It

denies the allegations.

In order to attend Christmas with the

royals, and the High Court hearing,

they would have to return in

early December and stay until

the case was over. “That is un-

likely,” the source said. “I

would anticipate that

they will be in Califor-

nia for Christmas.”

It has already been

suggested that the

couple would spend

Christmas with David

Foster, a Canadian

record producer, and

his wife, Katharine

McPhee, an actress.

The Duke and

Duchess of Sussex

will stay in the US

UK in vital

arms race

from lab to

battlefield

B

ritain is in a “very

real race” with its

enemies for

technological

advantage on the

battlefield, the defence

secretary has warned.

Ben Wallace said new

equipment for the armed

forces needed to be “threat-

driven” and better aligned to

the UK’s future needs.

Speaking as the Ministry of

Defence published its

Science and Technology

Strategy 2020, he added:

“What we do today will lay

the groundwork for the

decades to come.”

Mr Wallace was watching a

demonstration on Salisbury

Plain yesterday which

included drones that can be

securely linked. The army’s

new Android Team

Awareness Kit (Atak) allows

troops to see the position of

other soldiers while fighting,

helping to avoid friendly fire.

The device, which

resembles a mobile phone, is

positioned on a soldier’s

chest and links to drones and

autonomous vehicles fitted

with cameras that act as

“extendable eyes”, enabling

troops to see a livestream of

a target or threat miles away.

It also links to the X

unmanned ground vehicle,

which can be fitted with

cameras or speakers to

distract enemy forces, or to

send live footage back to

troops.

The demonstration

included Bug Nano drones,

unmanned aerial vehicles

that can fit in the palm of a

hand.

The new strategy, which

will be followed by the

integrated review of foreign

policy, defence, security and

international development,

seeks to ensure the armed

forces are equipped to meet

future threats.

Mr Wallace said the UK

needed to improve its

understanding of and access

to emerging technologies,

and not just “match our

adversaries like for like” but

“actively increase our

technological edges”. He said

he hoped to accelerate the

journey from laboratory to

battlefield but stressed that

he did not want to replace

humans but rather to support

and supplement them.

He added: “To succeed,

we’re going to have to tap

into our brightest brains

across the defence industry,

academia and the whole of

society. We’re going to have

to bridge the valley of death

between advanced science

and technology research,

production, scaling and

commercialisation.”

“We’re going to have to

make smarter choices about

how we invest taxpayers’

money,” he said.

The X3 demonstrated

yesterday can travel at about

12mph and has a range of

just over a mile but can be

linked with other vehicles to

relay information along a

chain up to 15 miles long. It

can also be used to break

into compounds, or clear

roadblocks, with enough

power to move objects up to

three tonnes.

A soldier launches a tiny

Nano Bug drone, which

provides an eye in the sky,

on Salisbury Plain

BEN BIRCHALL/PA