A PUB dominoes player who acted as a banker for a “boiler room” con syndicate has been jailed.

Michael McInerney, of Maison Dieu, Richmond, North Yorkshire, was given a four-and- a-half-year jail term at Southwark Crown Court after being convicted of three counts of money-laundering for fraudsters who conned £27m out of 1,700 investors.

The 57-year-old, who is originally from Colburn, near Catterick Garrison, acted as a banker for bogus share sales orchestrated by Tomas, Kevin and Christopher Wilmot, who were jailed last year for a total of 19 years.

Share scams, commonly known as boiler rooms, usually phone people and use high-pressure sales tactics to con investors into buying non-tradable, overpriced or non-existent shares.

They are unauthorised, overseas-based firms with bogus UK addresses and phone lines routed abroad.

The court heard the Wilmots enlisted McInerney in 2005 to put some distance between themselves and the proceeds of their con, which was based in the South-East.

McInerney, who had denied all of the charges, opened bank accounts for three companies – Rock Solid Asset Management, Worldwide Assets Limited and Universal Management Services – to receive the con’s proceeds.

A total of £12m was paid in to the accounts in 2006 and 2007.

McInerney also arranged transfers of funds to accounts in other countries.

In turn, the funds were distributed to accounts in Hong Kong, Dubai, Canada, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Austria.

After an investigation by the Financial Services Authority and police, McInerney was arrested in October 2007.

After disqualifying McInerney from being a company director for seven years, Judge Deborah Taylor said: “It was a serious and sustained criminal enterprise in which you played a sustained and vital part. From the time you were in receipt of victim information, you can have been in no doubt of the type of investor or of the losses they would have suffered.”

Detective Sergeant Richard Gordon said that without McInerney, there could have been fewer victims.

He said: McInerney knew where the money had come from and he knew he risked jail if caught. He can have no complaints with the jail term he now faces.”

McInerney’s neighbours described him as “a quiet ladies’ man”, who regularly played dominoes at a number of pubs in the town, including The Ship Inn.

One neighbour said: “I always wondered where he got the money to run his Porsche and Audi and build an extension came from as he never seemed to have a proper job.

“I’m not surprised in the least he has been jailed. In fact, I have been expecting it.”