Solicitor cleared of £250m Ritz Hotel scam

A SOLICITOR was cleared yesterday of taking part in an ambitious scam with a Limerick man to try to sell the Ritz Hotel for £250 million (€300m).

Conn Farrell, 57, was accused of adding a “veneer of legitimacy” to a con in which victims interested in the high-stakes world of trophy properties were sucked in with false promises until they handed over £1 million.

However, yesterday a jury found him not guilty of conspiracy to defraud following more than 13 hours of deliberations at the end of a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in central London.

The jury of nine women and three men are still considering their verdicts in relation to Farrell’s two co-defendants, Anthony Lee, 49, and Limerick man Patrick Dolan, 68, with an address at Tottenham, north London.

Farrell, of Cambridge Road, Aldershot, Hampshire, always insisted he was simply acting on the instructions of his clients, Lee and Dolan. He was cleared of conspiracy to defraud between January 1, 2006, and March 30, 2007, and walked free from court.

The jury was later sent home for the night and will continue its deliberations on Lee and Dolan today.

Lee is accused of being at the heart of the con which involved “one great big lie”, convincing potential buyer Terence Collins that he was a “close friend and associate” of the reclusive billionaire Barclay brothers, owners of the prestigious hotel in Piccadilly.

But Lee and his business partner, Dolan, told the jury the £1 million payment related to a separate property deal they had with Collins.

Lee, of Broad Lane, Beal, Goole, East Yorkshire, and Dolan are on bail and both deny conspiracy to defraud.