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Zimbabwean jailed for 7 years for £3,2m UK church swindle
By
Staff Reporter
A ZIMBABWEAN "modern-day
Moses" who funded a life of wild extravagance with millions milked
from fellow churchgoers in England was jailed for seven years on Monday.
Silver-tongued mastermind Lindani Mangena posed as a successful City trader to systematically swindle more than 1,000 Seventh Day Adventists out of a total of £3.2 million.
Mangena, 24, of Maidstone Avenue, Romford, and two fellow church members, promised massive returns with a foolproof formula.
Investors believed he was a 'modern day Moses' who would deliver them financial salvation, but he led the worshippers into a wilderness of debt.
Victims of Mangena and fellow fraudsters, Dean Hinkson, 29, and Curtis Powell, 31, included pensioners and widows who were forced to remortgage their homes to cope with their huge losses.
The trio lived a lived a life of luxury. University dropout Mangena boasted of a £100million investment portfolio in the Middle East and put down a deposit on a £4.8million penthouse overlooking the Thames.
Hinkson bought a £23,000 Mercedes and spent a further £1,700 on a personal number plate and Powell paid £25,000 for a BMW and another £35,000 for a luxury car for his mum.
Following a nine-week trial at London's Southwark Crown Court jurors found Mangena, Hinkson and Powell guilty after deliberating for more than five days.
They failed to reach a verdict on fourth defendant, Jordan Huie, 25.
The trial heard how in December 2003, Hinkson, a former railway maintenance worker and Mangena flew first class to Abu Dhabi, where they stayed at the five star Sheraton.
The following January, Mangena, with Hinkson and his wife, flew to Dubai first class and stayed at the seven star Burj al Arab hotel, running up a total bill of £73,500.
The gang mercilessly exploited the trust the Seventh Day Adventists placed in their fellow Christians and blinded them with technical jargon at impressive City offices, where their company, JNL Ltd, was based.
Desmond Vincent lost £70,000 but told the court he had been so taken in by the con he had given up his job as a building surveyor.
"When you are a baptised member of church, people embrace you. We thought Lindani Mangena was like a modern day Moses," he said.
"Mangena had an answer for everything, and I remained reassured by his wealth and lifestyle."
As the money disappeared and the fraud was exposed, Vincent said the community felt betrayed and many relationships within the church were severed.
IT consultant, Clive Shepherd, told the jury he was amazed after visiting Mangena's flat and seeing wads of cash lying around.
Shepherd, who lost £28,000, said Mangena had bragged that money “was coming in so fast he couldn't bank it quick enough”.
Student Monica Otufowora, handed over her student loan after hearing about the gang's investment programme in a Bible Studies Group, but was left penniless.
Housewife Lucy Acquah invested £76,000 in Mangena's schemes because he was a fellow believer - but was left in terrible debt.
Another victim was promised a £4.5million return if he re-mortgaged his home and invested £150,000 - but lost it all.
The court heard Mangena only invested £12,000 - and lost half of it.
Just a year before starting the scam, he had been a university student living at home with his mother.
Hinkson, Powell and Huie insisted they had no idea the business was fraudulent.
Huie told the court: "I had no reason to think that Lindani would be lying about the profits he said he made. I wouldn't have thought anyone would take money off people they knew like family."
Mangena refused to give evidence but insisted to police he had made a fortune but the investors had just been unlucky.
Mangena denied but was found guilty of fraudulent trading, carrying on unauthorised investment business, and one count of money laundering between July 31, 2003 and March 1, 2004.
Hinkson, of West Croydon and Powell, of Thornton Heath, denied but were found guilty of communicating an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity between October 3, 2003 and April 5, 2004. Huie, of Brixton, denied a like charge. Prosecutors are deciding whether to pursue a retrial.
Outside court, case officer DC Mel Moody, said: "Mangena was the mastermind. He targeted those he knew had little or no knowledge of financial matters.
"He heartlessly
used shared religious beliefs to help swindle victims out of every penny
he could and did not care what heartache and shattered lives he left
in his wake.”
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