A Porsche dealer who defrauded his customers out of $2 million is going to prison for five years and three months. During court proceedings, the judge said he”systematically abused and exploited the trust of customers, many of whom considered you a friend.”

The “fundamentally dishonest” Porsche dealer pleaded guilty to a charge of fraudulent trading in Bradford Crown Court in North Yorkshire, England. He was the manager of Specialist Cars of Malton Limited from late 2018 to February 2020.

While working at the dealership, he conducted a “sustained and calculated campaign of dishonesty.” In one case, according to Yorkshire Live, the Porsche dealer asked one widow to sell her late husband’s car to help fund her retirement, but he sold it without her knowledge and kept all the money.

The judge called the Porsche dealer’s fraud ‘sophisticated and persistent’

He defrauded investors and used vehicles he did not own as collateral to obtain loans. “Your actions were a sustained and calculated campaign of dishonesty. Your fraud was, to a degree, sophisticated and persistent,” Judge Ahmed Nadim told him.

The Porsche dealer, the BBC reported, also, as part of his scam, sold vehicles stored at his site without the owners’ knowledge and sold shares in vehicles he did not own.

“In order to maintain the facade of a successful business, [he] lied to customers time and time again, and falsified documents to give credence to those lies,” said fraud investigator Constable Emma Harris.

“The financial and emotional impact on his victims has been nothing short of devastating, and it is right that he now faces a lengthy prison sentence.”