By Jon Clarke and Walter Finch
EXPAT fashion boss Jody Smart has lost her appeal against a fraud conviction for her role in the Continental Wealth Management pension scandal.
Despite being implicated in the massive €35 million fraud that saw hundreds of mostly British expats in Spain lose much or even all of their pensions in 2017, Smart had so far managed to dodge jail.
But justice finally caught up with the one-time fashionista and wedding planner when an Alicante court convicted her of fraud in April this year.
The smaller trial focused on a narrow set of charges brought by just three CWM victims after a previous trial attempting to prosecute the entire fraud had collapsed in 2023.
Given the simpler nature of the court case, the judge quickly found Smart guilty. She was ordered to pay the victims a total of €370,00 and serve three years and six months in jail.
However, the celebrations from the many CWM victims were muted when Smart appealed the verdict, buying her a few more months of freedom – until now.
“It’s great to have the judgment backed by the High Court of Valencia and it means Jodie is now just a short hop from jail,” lawyer Carlos Coll Miralles, who represented the victims, told the Olive Press.
“But finally, having to spend three-and-a-half years in prison, that’s the least she deserves.
“The truth is, I’m sad that the case is still rumbling on after all these years. And I’ll only be happy when she finally pays my clients in full.”
The judge heard how Smart had deliberately defrauded one victim, Tim Benjamin, out of €300,000 for a property that never existed.
A second, Sally Anne Hodgson, was duped into lending €70,000 to Smart’s firm under false promises of repayment before the company collapsed weeks later.
But the most tragic case was that of Mark Davidson, who was scammed out of €800,000, but passed away before the verdict was reached.
“She took millions and destroyed many lives, so her sentence is a very small price to pay,” Coll continued.
Smart now has a dwindling number to appeal yet again – this time to Spain’s Supreme Court in Madrid.
She must file the papers before October 27, but Coll is doubtful that even Smart will attempt something so clearly futile.
“She now has a few days to appeal, but I can’t see a single reason why she should be successful there,” the lawyer said.
“Nothing has changed and it’s also going to cost more money which she claims she doesn’t have.
He added: “But I’m sure she has hidden a lot of it away in offshore tax havens.”
The campaigning lawyer, based in Ondara, Alicante, continues: “The problem is finding the money. It is hard to embargo things in her name… I can’t find anything.
“She’s made things very difficult to chase her for the money and I don’t think she will pay voluntarily.”
The former fashion boss had previously told the Olive Press she was appealing on the grounds that her signature ‘did not appear on any loans between individuals’.
The trial was an offshoot of the notorious CWM scandal, which devastated the lives of numerous expats upon its collapse eight years ago.
Smart was determined to be the sole administrator of a company called Continental Wealth Trust, while the court also named her then-partner Darren Kirby as being in on the scheme.
Kirby was found to be the sole administrator and partner of CWM, before it was reformed as CWT.
Incredibly, at least half a dozen other employees and senior figures have also so far managed to evade justice.
A separate court in Denia ruled in 2023 there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to prosecute four executives in a decision that devastated the victims.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Costa Blanca’s €35m CWM pension fraud – as justice is finally served
Smart’s lawyer went on to defend her glamorous lifestyle, which he said was the ‘product of years of hard work’.
He insisted there should be ‘no objection to how my client spent her money.’
Her popular Benissa restaurant Oceania is ‘a business that generates employment and added value and had nothing to do with the legal proceedings’.
A number of civil cases are also going through the legal system in the Isle of Man.
Smart was not available for comment when contacted by the Olive Press.
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