'Lord' jailed for £229m theft bid

Hugh Rodley, whose aristocratic pretensions are based on a manorial title, teamed up with a gang of internet raiders targeting a £229 million Japanese bank fortune.

Rodley, 61, of Church End, Twyning, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to transfer criminal property between January 1 and October 5, 2004.

While Rodley arranged a massive money-laundering operation with an array of front companies and overseas bank accounts, an "insider" at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation unlocked its London offices so fellow conspirators could make "surreptitious" night-time visits, London's Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

They used special software to corrupt the bank's computer system and access massive holdings of major companies such as Toshiba International, Nomura Asset Management and Sumitomo Chemical UK.

The audacious plot was foiled at the last minute by the complexities of inter-bank money transfers.

Also in the dock with Rodley was sex shop owner and "willing gopher" David Nash, 47, from Shelby Road, Durrington, West Sussex, who "fronted" some of the bank accounts. He was convicted of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and was jailed for three years.

Three other gang members admitted conspiracy to steal.

Bank insider and security supervisor Kevin O'Donoghue, 34, of Minstead Road, Birmingham, was jailed for four years, four months; Belgian computer expert Jan Van Osselaer, 32, got three-and-a-half years; and his "recruiter", Frenchman Gilles Poelvoorde, was sentenced to four years behind bars.

Passing sentence, Judge Martyn Zeidman QC, said: "In the old days the villain would break down the door of the bank, go in and simply take the money. Nowadays a different technique is applied. It involves, as in our case, the infiltration, the corruption and the attempted sabotage of the computer system. The technique is different, but the principle is exactly the same."