Lib Dem election candidate Vincent McKee jailed for fraud

[dutchman]

A Liberal Democrat candidate who stood in the 2010 general election in Coventry has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for fraud.



Vincent McKee, who ran a city centre-based student tuition firm, was found guilty of 25 charges of fraud.

Coventry Crown Court heard the 54-year-old stole about £23,000 from students and their families between October 2009 and January 2011.

The jury could not reach a decision on 10 other charges which remain on file.

During the six-week trial, the court was told McKee had obtained the money using his clients' bank card details.

Prosecutor Ben Mills told the jury McKee, who had refunded about a third of the money, had "only stopped taking money from their accounts when he was caught out by them".

'Trust was breached'

The court heard he had been "aggressive, abusive and bullying" towards his clients when they questioned why money had been taken without their authorisation.

Sentencing him at the end of the six-week trial, Judge Peter Carr said: "You were in charge of a business which offered tuition to people who needed it to pass important examinations such as A-levels and university degree courses.

"They were already at a stressful time in their lives.

"There were many people who couldn't afford to be without the money you took.

"There can be no other sentence but imprisonment for this persistent fraud.

"They all placed their trust in you, you breached that trust."

'Shambolic and dishonest'

During the trial McKee admitted a charge of engaging in commercial practise without professional diligence and was given a six-month concurrent sentence for that as well as being banned from being a director of a company for seven years.

Judge Carr said McKee had run his business in a way that was "shambolic and dishonest" and said the nine other fraud charges and one of perverting the course of justice which the jury could not reach a decision on would remain on file.

The defendant was the Lib Dem candidate for Coventry North West two years ago, and finished third behind Geoffrey Robinson, who won the seat for Labour, and Conservative candidate Gary Ridley.

The Lib Dems said he had been suspended since the allegations came to light and they would now expel him from the party.

[dutchman]

Crooked would-be Coventry MP ordered to pay back £16,000 - or go back to jail

A disgraced Coventry businessman and would-be politician who swindled students out of thousands of pounds has been ordered to pay back £16,000 – or face another nine months behind bars.

Vincent McKee, 56, was jailed in 2012 after he was found guilty of defrauding students and families out of more than £20,000 via his city tuition firm.

The fraudster – who stood for the Lib Dems in Coventry during the 2010 parliamentary election – was given a two and a half year prison sentence.

But until now his victims have been left out of pocket – with prosecutors chasing him for a significant amount of cash.

This week at Birmingham Crown Court a proceeds of crime act hearing concluded, with Judge Peter Carr ordering McKee to pay back £16,090.43.

If he doesn’t pay up within three months, McKee, of Hanbury Place, Aldermans Green, will go back behind bars for another nine months.

[dutchman]

Would-be Coventry LibDem MP slapped with 14 year company ban

A would-be Coventry Liberal Democrat MP has been disqualified from being a company director for 14 years.

Vincent John McKee, 56, stood for the party in Coventry North West during the 2010 general election – finishing third with 18 per cent of the vote.

But the shamed politician has now been disqualified from acting as a company director for 14 years by Manchester High Court.

Longford-based McKee, a director of three college tuition companies, was disqualified for taking unauthorised payments from students following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

The latest ban follows a court case in 2012 when McKee was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for 25 counts of fraud and six months concurrent for breaching professional due diligence.

At the time, McKee was disqualified from being a company director or managing a limited company for seven years. But the latest 14-year order is in addition to that existing ban.

McKee was a director of UAT (GB) Ltd, UAT (UK) Ltd and Godiva Corporate Training Ltd until the companies were all wound up in the public interest on October 3, 2012. They owed creditors and shareholders a combined total of £156,605.

The companies provided tuition services and corporate training packages to students and between January 2008 and August 2012 the companies were the subject of complaints to trading standards for taking unauthorised payments of £61,197 from students.

There were also at least 822 claims sought by customers directly from credit card providers totalling £96,624.

The investigation found that the companies failed to inform its customers of the price of services, payment arrangements, cancellation rights and the duration of contracts. The companies also failed to reimburse customers within 30 days when they had cancelled the service.

Ken Beasley, official receiver of the Insolvency Service’s Public Interest Unit, said: “Dr McKee has breached the trust of unsuspecting students, many of whom would be facing their own financial pressures.

“The Insolvency Service will not tolerate company directors who abuse the privileges of limited liability for personal gain.”