Fraudster Christopher Lloyd George blames Dubai-based American businessman for scam that robbed retirees of their investments

A fraudster threatened with a harsh jail term for refusing to explain why he ripped off retirees is now blaming a mystery overseas criminal for luring him into crime.

A judge gave Christopher Lloyd George a choice – either explain why he swindled retirees out of their superannuation or receive the longest possible sentence allowed under law.

On Thursday, the man dubbed “nothing short of pure evil” by his victims claimed he was lured into a life of crime by a mysterious, Dubai-based, American businessman.

In District Court sentencing submissions, counsel for George said that man had fed their client’s “greed and recklessness” by paying commission for his fraudulent actions.

They also tendered character references on George’s behalf which, they asserted, proved his offending was “out of character”.

Judge Geraldine Davison, who issued the warning to George in April, appeared unimpressed.

“Is the businessman a real person?” she asked.

“Some of these references do not include addresses, some do not include phone numbers, and some are inexplicable in some regards.

“One referee purports to want to employ him as a sales manager – why would he employ someone with this background?”

Peter Longson, prosecuting, told the court he could answer that question.

“That referee is known to investigating officers … he was a person of interest in relation to this offending but was not charged,” he said.

Superannuation scammer Christopher Lloyd George outside court. Picture: Sean Fewster

George, 33, of One Tree Hill, stole at least $233,000 of his clients’ money by falsely claiming he would “travel the world” to recoup money previously scammed from them.

The court was previously told the total loss to the victims was in the vicinity of $1.5 million.

After his arrest, George contacted his victims from custody and trying to dissuade them from giving evidence against him.

In April, those victims told the court George had left them in financial ruin, while he declined to give a reason for his offending.

His lawyer then quit the case, and Judge Davison warned George his sentence would likely be harsh.

On Thursday, George’s new lawyer, Shane Spence, provided the court with her client’s handwritten letter of apology.

“It demonstrates how far he has come … he is accepting blame and responsibility for what he has done and recognises the pain and hurt he has caused,” she said.

The American businessman was, she insisted, a real person and “there’s scam websites that has pictures of him and warnings about him”.

George’s role, she said, was to bring investors to the businessman – earning 10 per cent commission on their contributions – never knowing they would be defrauded.

Ms Spence said George gave $94,000 of the money to another of the businessman’s employees and spent the rest on “flights, hotels and heroin”.

Judge Davison said she would not accept those submissions unless George himself took the stand and gave sworn evidence.

“The fact of the matter is that, whilst he purports to apologise for his behaviour, we are coming back to a lack of acceptance on his part of the criminality of his behaviour,” she said.

She remanded George in custody for further submissions next month.