Five men have been jailed by judges in Noord-Holland for periods of up to four years for conning people out of money with fake investments through ‘boiler room scams’.

The gang persuaded at least 44 people to part with large amounts of money by pledging to invest the cash in wine, timber and CO2 emission rights, but in reality they kept most of the money for themselves, the court was told.

The ringleader, named as former stockbroker Lex V, was able to ‘create a life style to get an income’ and had a luxury home with swimming pool, a second home in Spain and bought tickets to the Monaco Grand Prix, broadcaster NOS reported. He was jailed for four years.

Daan K, who persuaded an 84-year-old woman to pump €75,000 into CO2 emission rights, used the money to pay off his mortgage debts and was also jailed for 14 months.

Film

Rabih F, who told his girlfriend he had been inspired by the film Boiler Room, created fake brochures in which he called himself Robert van Zuydewijn and described himself as one of the best financial advisors in Germany. He was jailed for 30 months.

Marc van D was found guilty of taking part in at least three boiler rooms and was jailed for 32 months. Two other men were given suspended sentences.

Lex V has already announced he will appeal against the sentence, saying he did nothing more than ‘broker information about companies’.

In total, eight people were taken to court in connection with the scam, and two were found not guilty due to a lack of evidence. The eighth man was was jailed for 28 months after being caught with 1.5 kilos of cocaine and almost 30 kilos of MDMA – a key ingredient in ecstasy.