FORMER policeman Lyndon Fuller, who was once a director of Queens Park Rangers Football club, spent thousands of pounds on a lavish lifestyle after persuading close family friends to invest in his ailing companies.

At Newport Crown court yesterday, Fuller was told he had "lied and cheated" his friends of their money and was sent to prison for two years and nine months.

The 58-year-old who lived in Caerleon and Magor before moving to East Riding, Yorkshire, admitted five charges at a court hearing last month.

Ten other charges against Fuller were dropped by the prosecution at that hearing. They also offered no evidence on charges of obtaining a money transfer by deception and attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception against Fuller's 40-year-old wife Caroline.

Fuller admitted one count of obtaining a money transfer of £109,700 by deception from pensioner Ursula Antoniou between May and June 2002.

Fuller admitted two counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception from her 64-year-old brother John Lewis of £75,000 and £100,000 between July and August 2002.

He also admitted obtaining a money transfer from Zurich Financial Services Plc between October and December 2001 and making a false statutory declaration, under the Perjury Act.

Peter Murphy QC, prosecuting, said Fuller entered the financial services industry in 1988 after being attacked while on patrol for Gwent police.

Mr Murphy said Fuller used the experience he garnered in financial services to establish two companies - Club Financial Services Limited and Fans Independent Financial Advisors - which offered financial services to fans of Premiership clubs such as Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers.

When these companies began to lose significant amounts of money, Mr Murphy said, he persuaded his friends to invest in them by falsely claiming they were profitable.

Accounts made in October, 2002, showed the two companies were running at a loss of £595,942.

Mr Murphy said: "Despite the debt, the defendant and his wife were spending freely."

Fuller and his wife had holidays in Florida and Cyprus, spent £27,000 on top-of-the range television and stereo equipment, and drove three BMWs and a Mini Cooper all of which had personalised number plates.

Gerald Elias QC, mitigating, urged the judge to give Fuller credit for pleading guilty at the earliest possible opportunity and said a prison sentence would be difficult for the ex-police officer.

Mr Elias added: "The defendant has real regret and remorse that he took substantial amounts of money in the way he did."

Judge Christopher Llewellyn-Jones QC said: "What is plain is that two persons trusted you and you gravely breached that trust.

"You lied and cheated them out of that money. It is inevitable a custodial sentence must follow for these offences."

Judge Llewellyn-Jones said Fuller's sentence of two years and nine months would have been in excess of four years had he not pleaded guilty to the five offences at the earliest possible opportunity.

1st September 2008: We have been asked to point out that Lyndon Fuller did not at any point live in Magor as stated in this article.