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Olympics Minister promises action after ´óÏó´«Ã½ London exposes job scam on Olympic Village
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The Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell has promised action after ´óÏó´«Ã½
London exposed a scam in which foreign workers were promised non-existent jobs on the building site of the 2012 Games in East
London.
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In December 2006, convicted fraudster Nigel Lewis advertised
through European recruitment agencies for tradesmen and catering
staff to work on the Olympic Village and offered them
accommodation on a cruise ship in London's Docklands.
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Five
hundred people signed up but, once they had a paid a deposit of
hundreds of pounds, Lewis disappeared.
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The 550 Slovakian workers who initially responded to the advert
transferred £600 each to a London bank payable to Mr Lewis's
company UK CruiseLine Ltd.
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Many took out loans and some even sold
their houses to raise the money, which was the equivalent to half
a year's living costs in their own country.
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One duped Slovak
tradesman, Marek Macor, said: "It was a very good thing to do, I
thought. In 2012 I could have shown it to my kids."
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Their applications were organised by Slovak recruitment agent,
Irena Cepelova, who met Mr Lewis and was won over by his
promises.
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She said: "He was very enthusiastic about the whole
idea of the Olympic Games. He was really a perfectionist and he
told me in detail how people will be accommodated on the cruise
ships."
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But in August 2007, as the date for the workers' travel
to London approached, Mr Lewis stopped communicating with them.
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Some Slovaks came to London anyway, hoping the promise of work
would be kept, but UK CruiseLine's offices were deserted and Mr
Lewis had disappeared.
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The three cruise ships had also vanished.
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Lewis's employment
contracts claimed the ships were moored at the King George V dock,
near Stratford, but dock authorities say no cruise ship has been
moored there for at least 25 years.
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But what the Slovaks did not know was that they had given their
money over to a convicted fraudster.
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In 2003, Nigel Lewis pleaded
guilty to another ship scam in which he pledged to create 700
jobs in Weymouth. He stole £16,000 and was fined £875 and given
120 hours of community service.
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Three years later he set up UK
CruiseLine Ltd. This company went bust in January, leaving the
Slovakian workers dreams of working on the Olympic village in
tatters.
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´óÏó´«Ã½ London traced Lewis to Dartmouth where he was working in a
hotel. He told ´óÏó´«Ã½ London he had made no profit from his UK
CruiseLine venture.
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"I've worked on this project almost 12
months solid and I've got nothing for it, just heartache," he
states.
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Lewis insisted that he had fully intended to buy three
cruise ships and secure jobs on the Olympics, but "it just went
out of control."
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Lewis said he had an agreement to purchase two of the ships from
a company in Cyprus and had even paid for marine experts to
survey the planned mooring site.
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The Cypriot company told us that
Nigel Lewis had called them a couple of times, but had made no
effort to buy or even inspect their ships – which were on the
market for $9million each.
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The marine survey company said they
had briefly met with Mr Lewis, but had never done any work for
him.
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´óÏó´«Ã½ London has handed over its evidence to the City of London
Police and the Slovakian authorities.
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Olympics Minister Tessa
Jowell said: "I am of course extremely concerned by these reports
and thank the ´óÏó´«Ã½ for highlighting this case. The Government will
work closely with the law enforcement agencies in their efforts
both to investigate and take action in response to any crime that
has occurred."
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Notes to Editors
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The full report can be seen on ´óÏó´«Ã½ London News today on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One.
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LB2/SDB
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