A RUTHLESS conman who flirted with a female victim while scamming her out of more than £320,000 has been locked up for six years.

Lee Kantor, 42, operated a complex fraud in which he promised to invest cash in gold and rare earth metals.

Instead, payments of tens of thousands of pounds at a time fuelled his out-of-control gambling addiction and lavish lifestyle.

Kantor, of Chase Court Gardens, Southend, was found guilty last month of two counts of fraud and money laundering.

Ryan Wilkinson, 46, of The Croft, Great Wakering, was found guilty of money laundering by allowing Kantor to use his account to receive payments. He was jailed for 12 months.

Following the sentencing, investigating officer Det Con Andy Copley, of Southend CID, said: ““I welcome today’s sentence which brings a three- year complex investigation to its conclusion.

“These individuals preyed on their victims. They were scammed into investing significant sums of money into what they thought was a legitimate business.

“I hope today’s sentencing gives them some comfort and I would urge anyone else who may have been victims of these individuals but have not yet come forward, to do so and contact Essex Police.”

During the trial, the court heard Kantor worked for rare earth metals broker Hurst and Lang Ltd, based in the City, between 2012 and 2013.

The firm cold-called potential investors and offered to use their cash to buy rare earth metals - used in mobile phone and computer technology - from another company called Denver Trading.

Basildon Crown Court heard the first victim was the 56-year-old wife of a senior banking executive.

She agreed to invest £17,500 with Denver Trading, making the payment through Hurst and Lang. Three weeks later, she received another call from Lee Kantor, using the alias James Anderson. He suggested she make another £40,000 investment and she agreed.

Over the following months, the pair were in contact almost daily. She lost £323,989 while the other woman handed over £33,929.

The pair later met at a Café Rouge in Woking, where Kantor talked her into investing in gold through another firm, LAK Investments.

She told the court how the pair drank “quite a lot” of red wine and the meeting turned from business to “social.”

The woman described Kantor as “attentive” and the pair later booked into a hotel where she thought they might have sex, although only “touching” took place, which she immediately regretted.

She fled in tears and her husband picked her up, but the next day she transferred £10,000 to LAK because she was worried she had “compromised” the relationship.

Over the following weeks and months, the pair were in contact almost daily. On one occasion, the woman accused Kantor of running a scam but he said: “How can you accuse me of that?”

She continued to make payments, sometimes as investments of around £12,000 and sometimes as personal “loans” to Kantor to help him raise capital to invest in jointly-owned gold.

The court heard the woman became increasingly suspicions and visited the offices of Hurst and Lang on July 22, but found the company had moved. Kantor assured the woman the firm had moved to Essex because the “rates were cheaper.” She said: “It seemed plausible.”

She said Kantor continuously made excuses, claiming that people “further up the chain” were delaying payments or that the firm’s directors were being investigated for fraud.

During another meeting, the woman said Kantor’s demeanour changed and he showed her a photo of her husband on the bank’s website and laughed.

She lost a total of £323,989 while the other woman handed over £33,929.

Kantor claimed he acted as an honest broker and the women were simply two of the many victims of Denver Trading.

An unrelated trial over Denver Trading’s activities at Blackfriars Crown Court ended in May with four men being jailed. There were more than 600 victims who handed over a total of £7.7million.

Hurst and Lang directors Jeffrey Whiley, 38, of Brackendale Gardens, Upminster and Mark Sewell, 38 of Christopher Close, Hornchurch, both admitted two counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering at an earlier hearing. They will be sentenced at a later date.