Brit celebrates after crooks who conned him out of €92,000 in land scam are finally jailed

CROOKS who conned a Brit out of €92,000 in a land scam have finally been jailed.

Neil Riddoch, is overjoyed that two men have been put in prison for 12 months, 11 years after they fraudulently sold him a nine hectare plot in Carataunas, near Orgiva in Granada province.

The result comes after Riddoch, a Colchester-based businessman, mounted a campaign with the Olive Press to get justice.

Although the fraudsters were found guilty by Granada Supreme Court in 2013, they had until now managed to keep their freedom despite being told they would have to go to jail by 2015 for refusing to pay Riddoch back the money.

“I can hardly believe it as I had almost given up hope that anything would happen to them,” said Riddoch, 58, boss of London printing company Colour Fast World.

“It has taken an incredible amount of time to get any justice.

“Although I am currently still out of pocket to the tune of about €200,000 including to lawyer costs, it is a result.

“I will be opening a bottle of champagne and thinking of the two crooks sitting in a hot sweaty prison cell for what they did to me.”

Riddoch had intended to build three houses on the land before he realised he had been scammed when he was sued by its legal owner, as the Olive Press first reported a decade ago.

The win has given him fresh confidence to try retrieve his money.

“My lawyer will now try to seize their assets and have them sold off to pay me back, whatever they are worth,” he said.

“I don’t hold out much hope on that one coming to fruition any time soon though, given how long it has taken to get to this stage.

“I have been informed, however, that I will receive my €6,800 land tax money back I was also owed by the local council with interest, bringing it €10,000.”