Conman Ric Blum made quick buck on coins, were they stolen from widow?

He’s a prominent figure at a missing teacher’s NSW inquest, and now serial fraudster Ric Blum has been found selling the exact same type of coins he’s accused of stealing.

One of the coins auctioned by conman Ric Blum in November 2010 under his family name, Coppenolle.

A serial fraudster accused of stealing an elderly widow’s precious coin collection later sold some of the exact same type of coins through a major Australian auction house.

When Ric Blum allegedly fled with Belgian grandmother ­Andree Flamme’s rare and valuable coins, records identifying what was in the collection were taken with him.

But not everything is gone, with Ms Flamme’s family locating guidebooks used by her late husband to keep track of the coins he purchased.

Using those guidebooks, The Australian found that five months after the theft Mr Blum auctioned coins that matched some of those believed to have been stolen.

Andree Flamme.

Born in Belgium and now an Australian citizen living in Ballina in northern NSW, Mr Blum has become a central figure in inquiries into the 1997 disappearance of teacher and mother of two ­Marion Barter.

He last year told an ongoing NSW inquest into Barter’s suspected death that he returned the coins to Ms Flamme by registered post. But Ms Flamme, 92, and her family last week told The Australian that he sent back only a fraction of what he stole while a guest at her home in June 2010.

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He was also lying under oath at the inquest when he said Ms Flamme was at the time in a wheelchair, had dementia and “couldn’t put two words together”, they said.

The theft was raised at the ­inquest because just months after the coins were taken Ms Flamme wrote to the Queensland Governor pleading for something to be done about him after tracking him to the state.

Ric Blum is accused of swindling a string of women, including Belgian widow Andree Flamme. Picture: Tessa Flemming

Australian police never contacted Ms Flamme and her family about the coins, estimated to be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Mr Blum, an avid coin collector, has not been charged with the theft.

Before his death in October 2009, Ms Flamme’s husband Jacques Plume marked items in his coin guidebooks to indicate what he’d purchased, his family says. These included markings for two 1935 silver 50 franc coins issued for the Brussels Exposition and Railway centennial – one with French legend, the other Flemish legend.

In November 2010, Mr Blum auctioned two of the same 1935 silver 50 franc coins – one with French legend, the other Flemish legend. The coins sold for $120 each at the auction at Sydney’s Hotel InterContinental, slightly less than the price estimate. They were among a series of coins Mr Blum sold that month through Noble Numismatics under his family name, Coppenolle, according to publicly available auction records.

Another coin, from 1856 with a $150 price estimate, matches one marked in the Flamme family’s guidebooks.

The Australian confirmed with a leading independent coin trader that coins auctioned by Mr Blum matched those marked in the Flamme guidebooks. However, the Flamme catalogues had generic rather than identifying coin images, making it impossible to tell definitively whether Mr Blum was selling stolen coins, he said.

A coin guidebook where Andree Flamme’s late husband has marked that he purchased two of the 1935 coins.

Noble Numismatics managing director Jim Noble said he would co-operate with any police investigation if requested. The silver 50 franc coins were common, and without unique images the Flamme guidebooks did not provide conclusive evidence, he said.

“The two that he’s marked could be the two coins we have, but it’s not proof,” Mr Noble said.

“Plenty of collectors of Belgium coins would have these. What you need is a great rarity, something that’s really unique.”

Coin auctioneers keep detailed records, and detectives would be able to quickly confirm if Mr Blum sold higher value coins matching those marked in the Flamme guidebooks. Ms Flamme says Mr Blum conned his way into a weeks-long stay at her Brussels home by offering to value the coins, then stole them while she was at the shops.

School teacher Marion Barter vanished in 1997 after a secret affair with convicted conman Ric Blum.

Her daughter, Agnes Plume, said the guidebooks contained only a small portion of the stolen coin collection. “This is the way my father worked,” Ms Plume said. “According to the catalogue, he chose the coins he liked, went to clubs, numismatists‘ markets, etc. When he found the coins, he noted them in the catalogues. Everything that is noted belonged to him.

“Other writings existed, but this gentleman (Mr Blum) tore out all the pages and left the books empty.”

Mr Blum was jailed for four years in France for fraud before duping Australian authorities into fast-tracking his citizenship in 1976, claiming his father was dying, immigration records show. His father had died more than 30 years earlier.

Mr Blum did not reply to messages on Thursday.