THE widow of a terminally ill man who was conned out of almost half a million pounds by a close friend has condemned the fraudster as a "despicable man".
Jonathan Speirs, a world-famous lighting architect, was persuaded to part with a total of £476,864 by friend and neighbour Keith Cameron through a complicated ruse.
Now Mr Speirs' widow Elizabeth Speirs, 58, has revealed the crime has left her and her two daughters struggling for cash. She is being forced to sell off the family home in Edinburgh which she shared with her husband for 24 years.
Cameron, 54, conned Mr Speirs - who was dying of stomach cancer - out of thousands of pounds by claiming his company, Chase Telecom Ltd, required money to win a valuable contract to supply telecom services.
Cameron repeatedly claimed the company was trading well and that investors had pumped millions of pounds of money into the business. He insisted Mr Speirs could expect to receive a return on his investment of around £2 million within two years.
But it later emerged the entire operation was a lie and that Cameron, also from Edinburgh, had been using Mr Speirs's cash to maintain a luxury lifestyle.
The father-of-two, who has now been declared bankrupt, was found guilty of fraud at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday and will be sentenced next month.
Mrs Speirs said yesterday the cruel scheme had left her and her two daughters, Lucie and Erin, in "dire straits financially".
The widow, who recently underwent radiation therapy for early stage breast cancer, said: "It hasn't quite sunk in - I'm just very grateful that the jury saw through him.
"He's just a despicable man, and what he did to my husband - who was a good man - is just awful, and the financial situation he has left us in is awful. I'm going to have to sell my house soon, as I can't afford to stay.
"I never got a chance to grieve for my husband because I found this out right away. I feel like I have been robbed of so much in my life - my husband, a friend, and the chance to build a new life for me and my daughters.
"My husband had withdrawn money from a policy that he had taken out in case either he or his [business] partner became ill, so that he could exit his company without any financial impact.
"The Camerons have been friends with us for a very long time. They were people we trusted."
On Wednesday, the court heard Cameron had a mortgage of £1.34 million, had bought cars for his wife and daughter, took holidays in a luxury villa and sent his two daughters to private school.
One of his daughters also attended the American Academy of Drama and the Arts in New York and had a student flat near the Empire State Building.
Mrs Speirs said: "He has been living a lie for many, many years. He hasn't worked since 2009 - since then he has purportedly been setting up a business. He just got used to the good life and he didn't want to give it up.
"But his wife and his daughters are not implicated in this - I want to make that clear.
"It's not something you would have been looking out for. When somebody comes back to you with good states of account and it's a friend who you know has a good track record, you think everything is going to be okay. It's not something you would expect of a friend.
"I'm 58 and should be thinking of retiring but Keith Cameron spent the money on his own family and a lavish lifestyle."
Mrs Speirs became aware of Cameron's crime only after she began to look into her husband's estate following his death in 2012 at the age of 54.
Mr Speirs's work in lighting design illuminated some of the world's most famous buildings, including Dubai's Burj Al Arab hotel and the Millennium Dome in London.
Cameron's wife declined to comment.
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