Jail term for celebrity chef conman

Kenneth Goldsmith claimed to have been trained as a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris and to be on personal terms with the two TV personalities, Lincoln Crown Court was told.

Goldsmith, 40, actually learned to cook in prison and was a conman who used his victims' money to pay for holidays, Aston Martin cars and helicopter rides.

His victims paid thousands of pounds to invest in Goldsmith's businesses before he used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle with his girlfriend, Kristy Emmans.

Goldsmith and Emmans, 38, formerly of Norton Disney, Lincolnshire, were jailed.

Goldsmith previously admitted 20 counts of fraud, a charge of theft and a charge of using criminal property, totalling £120,000. He will serve three and a half years.

Emmans had earlier admitted 11 counts of fraud and one of theft totalling £70,000. She was jailed for 18 months.

Jailing the pair, Judge Richard O'Rorke said: "The real mischief of your actions is not the amount of money, it's in the damage and in some cases the ruin that you affected on ordinary small people, on ordinary small amounts of savings, and on small companies doing their best to survive in difficult times.

"The more I read these papers, the more I get the impression you were financial locusts, living on the back of other people's hard work and savings. That's the real mischief of these offences.

"Sometimes it is said that a conman believes his own lies and there might be something in that. You got involved in a ruthless and cynical fraud over a period of time and you involved your girlfriend, but I have to say Miss Emmans, you were a willing part. You were a willing and skilful operator in your own right."