Andrew Ryder - Villa fraudster

A former businessman from south London has been jailed for conning families out of tens of thousands of pounds for luxury holiday villas which did not exist

We’ve talked about villa scams before. Happily this kind of fraud is still rare and only affects bookings made through owner-direct websites. These simple advertising sites rarely check that the property exists or that the advertiser is the owner.

Some owner-direct sites claim to verify their owners. Whilst these schemes go some way to verify that the advertiser exists, they often cannot that prove that he owns the property.

Here’s a recent example. A former businessman from south London has been jailed for conning families out of tens of thousands of pounds for luxury holiday villas which did not exist.

Andrew Ryder had made £122,158 from 13 victims who paid for holiday lets in France & Switzerland which he advertised on three websites during 2008 and 2009.
He used aliases to cover his tracks and set up multiple bank accounts in various countries, including the Czech Republic. His unwitting clients wired both deposits and final balances direct to him. Of course, they only discovered the fraud when arriving for their holidays.

One website called in the police after receiving a large number of complaints from Ryder’s victims.

According to Det Supt Bob Wishart, from the City of London Police's Economic Crime Directorate, "Ryder used the promise of luxurious villas in exotic locations to trick people into handing him their savings. In doing so, he destroyed family holidays and damaged the reputations of legitimate businesses."

Booking through a full service agency, like Pure France, completely avoids this risk. We visit every one of our properties and meet the owner on-site. We are licensed by the French government and bonded so that clients’ payments are fully guaranteed.