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A dodgy property developer jailed for multi-million-pound fraud was in business with a crooked Merseyside Police Chief Inspector who knew he had been placed under investigation.
Failed businessman Robert Ware, 43, and financial advisor Graham Wortley, 58, carried out a “sophisticated” mortgage scam involving the acquisition of short-term bridging loans against eight different properties, purchased between 2014 and 2017.
The ECHO can now reveal the pair are the ‘Mr A’ and ‘Mr B’ referred to in reports of a misconduct hearing which ended the 24-year police career of former Chief Inspector Stephen Rice. The married dad-of-three was found to have had a long-standing business arrangement with Ware, which persisted even after Rice became aware his associate was under investigation by the force’s Economic Crime Team.
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Rice also continued dealing with Ware after he had been privy to rumours suggesting the developer was “running with the Ungis”, a reference to an organised crime group.
Ware of Old Mill Lane in Wavertree, was last week locked up for eight years and Wortley, of Dunbeath Avenue in Rainhill, for six years after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court. The charges followed a six year investigation dubbed Operation Benadir, an investigation that Rice was aware of long before any charges were announced.
Investigators found the pair had sent forged documents to the HM Land Registry in order to get rid of the protection offered to lenders, which allowed them to refinance or sell the properties to other individuals, including wealthy investors from Saudi Arabia.
This resulted in massive losses totalling £4.8m, with one affected company, Seneca Bridging, losing approximately £3m to the scam. Another business, EAD Solicitors, was forced to close after being unwittingly caught up in the businessmen’s dodgy dealings.
Over the course of a three month trial, the jury heard Ware bragged he had “more front than Blackpool and Las Vegas”. On another occasion, Wortley, after watching a documentary about the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia, messaged Ware: “Wow what a corrupt government & ruling class. Makes us look like we took a sweet from the sweet jar.”
Rice’s business interests became the focus of a major internal investigation by the force’s Anti-Corruption Unit, dubbed Operation Redshift, which although did not result in criminal charges led to disciplinary proceedings being initiated.
Rice’s career ended in disgrace after an independent panel concluded he was guilty of gross misconduct in February this year. Before he was suspended in 2021, Rice had been responsible for neighbourhood policing across Wavertree, Toxteth and Picton. He had also served as a firearms officer before being promoted.
But Rice had other interests outside policing, and by 2016 was a landlord boasting a property portfolio worth in excess of £2million. The officer managed to amass such an extensive collection of properties largely thanks to an initially successful arrangement with Ware, referred to across the four day misconduct hearing as ‘Mr A’ due to the upcoming trial.
It later emerged that Ware and Wortley, as well as a solicitor referred to as “Mr C”, who had all worked with Rice on his property deals, were at the centre of Operation Benadir.
Initially Rice was treated as a victim of fraud after it emerged a law firm linked to Mr C had “double sold” a £600,000 property on Linnet Lane to the then officer and to a Saudi businessman, leaving Rice with a mortgage on a property he did not legally own.
However he fell under suspicion and was subjected to criminal investigation, although no evidence emerged he was involved in fraud or criminal offences.
Even while under investigation, however, Rice continued to meet with and contact Ware regularly after he learned he was a suspect, even joking with the developer about wearing a “moustache, hat and gloves” or a “floral dress and blonde wig” as a disguise.
On one occasion, Ware text Rice saying Wortley had “been lifted” after the financial advisor was arrested, and added: “It is in your interests to call me before I lash this phone”.
Rice told the panel he never had any concerns over Ware, describing him a “nice guy” who he believed was a respectable businessman. However the panel heard he had received texts from a woman who worked for Ware, telling him the developer “was running with the Ungis” now, a reference to a “prominent organised crime group.”
Most damningly for the officer, the panel saw he had specifically denied contacting Ware in a criminal interview on March 28, 2019, despite investigators finding he had in fact met him in person the day before in Calderstones Park.
James Berry, representing Merseyside Police at the four day hearing, had told the panel: “Chief Inspector Rice is like Icarus, he has flown rather too close to the sun in terms of very attractive seeming property deals from which he could become fantastically well off, and forgetting his role as a police officer. Regrettable as it is, these are the facts.”
Mr Berry said Rice, a highly experienced and senior officer, had acted in a way in which “even a probationer constable” would know was far below the standards expected of the force. He described his explanations for ignoring instructions and lying about his contact as “risible”.
Rice also failed to disclose to the force that he still owed Ware around £65,000 when he was asked to provide a new register of his business interests in 2019.
In another eye-watering breach of police protocol, the panel found Rice had spoken for over two hours with a serving prisoner in HMP Garth, called Craig Wright, who was using an illicit mobile phone smuggled into the jail. The panel heard the discussions were around settling a claim for damage caused by one of Rice’s flats leaking onto a retail unit below and damaging an oven.
In a further unrelated charge, Rice was found guilty of submitting a 20,000 word dissertation to Liverpool Hope University in 2015 which had been “substantially written” by company called UK Essays. The panel found he had paid the company £3,300 for the work, which formed part of a Master’s course in police leadership, partially funded by Merseyside Police.
The independent panel found he had breached professional standards of behaviour around duties and responsibilities/orders and instructions, honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct.
He was cleared of charges relating to a search on police intelligence systems for a man called Desmond Bayliss in 2016, a convicted drug dealer and known associate of Mr A, after the panel heard there was no evidence he was aware of that association at that time. He was also cleared of failing to submit an intelligence report in good time over the text describing Mr A “running with the Ungis”.
Speaking after the decision, then Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley said: “I am deeply disappointed by the behaviour of Rice. His selfish, dishonest actions are at odds with the courageous, compassionate, selfless, caring action shown by the majority of Merseyside Police who dedicate themselves to protecting the public of Merseyside.”
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