A conman bankrolled his son’s £44,000 bar mitzvah celebrations with the profits of a Rolex watch and jewellery scam.
Jason Shifrin, 49, is already serving a prison sentence of three years and 10 months for duping a man out of £40,000, which he spent on a luxury holiday to Mexico and the US. Now a judge has ruled he will spend an extra 18 months behind bars.
Shifrin admitted two more frauds in 2015 and 2017, raking in almost £100,000 with bogus claims that the money would be invested in luxury watches and jewellery.
Harrow crown court heard that as well as using the profits to pay for his teenage son’s bar mitzvah, the fraudster bought an £18,000 Mini Cooper and a £6,000 family holiday.
“You persuaded both these men to invest in deals that were fictitious and used that money to fund your family’s luxury lifestyle,” said Judge Lana Wood, sentencing Shifrin to an extra 18 months in prison.
She heard how Shifrin used his “undoubted charisma and communication skills” behind bars as a go-between for prisoners and staff, adding: “Somehow out of this you are going to have to recover your self-respect.”
Shifrin, who used to wash the car of business tycoon Lord Sugar, penned the book Money, Money, Money in 2011 and talked of trying to become a millionaire.
The court heard he swindled 56-year-old Reza Zoje out of £93,560 in 2015 by offering him a bogus chance to invest in luxury watches.
A second man was persuaded to part with £5,930 in 2017 with a similar scam, after Shifrin boasted of selling expensive jewellery and watches to celebrities and footballers.
“The defendant persuaded these two individuals into investing into deals that didn’t exist and transfer money into his wife’s bank account,” said prosecutor Leena Lakhani.
She added that Shifrin, who used the alias Shipman, offered a string of excuses when he failed to return the money, suggesting he was close to bankruptcy and “even claiming he may have cancer”.
Shifrin’s wife Nicole, 47, was accused of laundering money from the scams through her bank account but the case was dropped when her husband pleaded guilty and the CPS offered no evidence against her.
She has already been convicted of laundering £40,000 from her husband’s first scam and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service last year.
Shifrin, from Borehamwood, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud. He will now serve a total prison sentence of five years and four months.
