Cameo fraud trial boss rushed to hospital

Just as the hearing at Reading Crown Court was due to resume at 10am, Judge Stephen John summoned jurors and dropped the bombshell news that one of the defendants, Jonathan King, had been rushed to hospital.
Earlier in the case brought by West Berkshire Council’s Trading Standards, the jury heard how Mr King, boss at the former Cameo Fine Art Auctioneers, lived the high life while fleecing customers.
The true scale of the deception may never be known, the court heard, but it could involve sums of up to quarter of a million pounds.
In the dock beside 63-year-old Mr King, of Mattock Way, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was his wife Beverley and brother-in-law, Glenn Norcliffe, of Marcuse Road, Caterham, Surrey.
Mr King and Mr Norcliffe deny fraud by abuse of position.
Mr King denies charges of making false representations and Mrs King denies being concerned in the control or retention of criminal property.
At the end of last week, the second week of the trial, Mr King gave evidence from the witness box, denying any wrongdoing.
He was cross examined by prosecutor Gordon Menzies and by lawyers for Mrs King and Mr Norcliffe.
The defence case was due to resume this morning but at 10.30am Judge John summoned the jury and said: “You will see that neither Mr nor Mrs King are in the dock. This is because, two or more hours ago, Jonathan King was taken ill at home. He has been taken to hospital, probably to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.”
Judge John added: “I don’t know what his condition is or even what’s wrong with him,” but he said it was impossible for the trial to continue that day.
He dismissed the jury for the weekend and told them to keep their mobile phones turned on in order that court staff could keep in touch with them in case the trial was able to resume on Monday.
Jurors have heard customers were routinely “fobbed off” or sent dud cheques, while the bank accounts of online bidders were raided.
Mr King even treated himself to a luxury holiday at his victims’ expense, said Gordon Menzies, prosecuting.
He told jurors: “It’s not just that clients had difficulties and delays in getting their money – many never got paid at all.”
Those critics “lucky” enough to get a cheque often found it bounced, the court heard.
A common refrain heard by frustrated customers was: “The cheque is in the post,” jurors heard – and one victim was told that 20 times.
But worse was to come, for, as the net closed in, the company began raiding the bank accounts of online bidders who had used credit cards, said Mr Menzies.
He added: “It was not just ‘inefficiencies,’ as claimed and not just the scale of the complaints – customers’ items went ‘missing.’”
Cameo eventually closed and Mr King was declared bankrupt.
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