Fraudster is spared jail to start family

The fiance of a former weathergirl escaped jail today despite being convicted of a £400,000 fraud, after telling the judge he wanted to start a family with her.

Richard Van Baaren, 41, used forged documents to try to claim stocks and shares belonging to a sheikh working for the son of the Saudi Arabian king.

But his counsel Edmund Gritt begged Judge Christopher Elwen to spare him from prison so he could settle down with fiancé¥ Sian Jones, a former Channel Five weathergirl now working for Sky News.

"Mr Van Baaren's fianc饬 Sian, is 39 years old. Both desperately want children. A prison sentence of any length will extinguish the possibility of that happening," Mr Gritt told Southwark Crown Court.

Judge Elwen sentenced Van Baaren to 240 hours community service.

The court heard that Van Baaren had repeatedly written to representatives of Sheikh Fahad Al-Athel offering the services of his firm, which reunites unclaimed shares with their owners. When they showed no interest he tried to claim the assets, writing to Computershare posing as the sheikh.

Mr Gritt admitted Van Baaren's attempted fraud lacked even "basic criminal common sense" and the police were called when Bristol-based Computershare grew suspicious of his requests for a new share certificate.

A letter seemingly signed by the sheikh read: "I have no memory of these shares and assume they were bought for me by my late father." But the letter was not sent from the sheikh's address so the company requested personal identification and a signed bank letter. Van Baaren forwarded a Barclays Bank document with a fake signature, and a photocopy of a driving licence which showed neither the sheikh nor the defendant and stated the wrong date of birth.

After contacting Barclays, the firm became suspicious and requested further identification so Van Baaren sent a forged gas bill, a fake birth certificate and a phoney water bill, which matched the amount on his home bill. But he was unsuccessful in getting his hands on the shares worth ? 250,000 and ?160,000 of unclaimed dividend payments.

In court Sheikh Al-Athel told the jury: "I do not know him, I have never met him and I have never heard of him."

Van Baaren, of Isleworth, was convicted of four charges of using a false instrument with intent and attempting to obtain property by deception between 1 September 2002 and 31 January last year.

Judge Elwen told him: "You had in fact spent the time between 1995 and 2000 in genuine attempts to contact the sheikh, but were obstructed by his solicitors. As these legitimate enquiries appeared to be getting nowhere, you fell into temptation. This is a serious matter and probably passes beyond the custody threshold. However Mr Gritt suggests there are matters to be taken into account which should lead me to accepting the recommendation this can be dealt with by way of a community punishment order."