Royal policeman lost fortune in currency betting club at Palace

When the spread betting venture collapsed the ringleader set up a £3 million property investment scam.

Paul Page, a former Royal Protection officer based at Buckingham Palace, spent years conning colleagues and friends to fund his expensive life style. He ran a fleet of cars and used his wife Laura to launder the profits through her bank accounts.

Page ran the "Currency Club" from the Palace before turning to more profitable sidelines to clear the debts, the court heard.

He created a "veneer of credibility", portraying himself as a golden property developer and market speculator capable of offering huge interest rate returns.

In fact his glossy brochures had been cobbled together and the money which flooded in was gambled away.

When he feared a long-time friend who had lost thousands would reveal the truth, she was subjected to death threats, the jury at Southwark crown court was told.

Father-of-five Page, 37, of, Grays, Essex, denies five counts — two of fraudulent trading and one each of intimidation, threatening to take revenge and making a threat to kill between January 2003 and March 2007. His wife, Laura, 42, pleaded not guilty to "being concerned in an arrangement facilitating dealings with criminal property", intimidation and threatening to kill.

Page, who now works as a courier, spent 10 years as a constable in SO14, the royal protection command, up to last year. Douglas Day QC, prosecuting, said: "He was based at Buckingham Palace and once there he developed a reputation for being good with money and for being knowledgeable about the stock market.

"Among the royalty protection officers he ran what became known as the currency club' through which officers speculated through spread betting on the foreign exchange market.

"This is a field in which an inexperienced, unskilful and unlucky punter can easily go bankrupt."

Page bragged he was "adept in this game" and to back up his image would show off in his cars — Range Rovers, Mercedes and Porsches — which were far beyond the income of a normal police constable.

In fact he had hired them from a company in Cardiff and still owed them £20,000 when he was arrested.

Page was losing substantially in his gambling and cost his fellow officers hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Apart from the "Currency Club" Page convinced 57 victims to plough their money into non-existent developments by offering returns of up to 40 per cent in a year.

Mr Day said: "Far from using the funds on property development, the money was dissipated in gambling by Mr Page and financing his expensive lifestyle and his wife's lifestyle."

The case continues.