Graham Templeton talks to Connexion
We tracked down the Dordogne conman and asked him why he was not in jail. He has now begun his two-year sentence
IN JUNE 2009 Graham Templeton was jailed for two years for defrauding a group of Dordogne expats out of €2m. Like 82,000 other non-violent criminals in France, he was freed to await a letter telling to present himself at prison.
The Connexion tracked him down in the UK at the end of January and challenged him to explain why he had not yet returned to France to start his sentence.
He said: "I can't. My lawyer tells me I have to wait for a warrant. I nor my lawyer have received any such warrant. When I do I'll come. If you can prove it's been issued I'll be on a ferry tonight."
However, the Service de l'Execution des Peines in Bordeaux told Connexion in November that a letter calling him back to France had been sent to his lawyer.
More recently the same office said a European arrest warrant had been issued for Templeton.
Templeton said: "If you can prove that then I'll return tonight and turn myself in."
Templeton was sentenced in June 2009 for defrauding expats in the Dordogne out of €2m but released to await a summons. He headed for the UK after the court hearing.
He said: "I'm not in hiding. The authorities know where I am - you managed to find me - it wasn't that hard was it?"
It is not Templeton's first offence. In the UK in 1996, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for various fraudulent crimes. He moved to France following his release.
Now back in Britain, he claims to be ‘broke' but is living with his girlfriend in a comfortable house in Keston, Kent, and driving an up-to-date Land-Rover Discovery.
His victims meanwhile have yet to receive compensation. Some have been left destitute, some have since died.
Templeton says he has returned to France many times during the past year and still has French friends in the south-west.
He said he had even been in France the previous week visiting his son who works as a chef at a five star hotel near Compiègne in the Oise.
He had previously refused to speak to BBC interviewers but told Connexion: "I'm very humble for what happened and sorry for the victims. However let's remember this is all about greed, my greed and theirs. I do want them to receive their money back.
"The bank (Societé Générale) should help. It was negligent."
He says he discovered the banking loophole accidentally.
"It was purely by chance after one of the first cheques and that was that. If you tested it out you will know it is easy.
"Never at any point did anyone question what I was doing.
"None of the victims queried why the payments to them that were made came from my own bank account," he added.
There have been claims other victims have not come forward through embarrassment or because of tax fears. "If there are others, tell them to come forward, they won't, they don't exist," said Templeton.
He blamed the tax authorities for taking the money before he had a chance to pay back those hurt by the fraud.
"The victims could have received some money from the sale of my house but this went to the French tax authorities first rather than the victims.
"They sold my house for €364,000 when it was valued just two months before at €1 million plus.
"They take the money first before the victims - I have got a tax demand from them for the money I got. France is one of the few countries to tax such money.”
"Everything I did - the house, the cars was for investment. If I really was such a conman I would have taken stuff on credit, I didn't I bought it. I could have paid people back if the French tax authorities hadn't messed it up," he said.
Templeton has now begun his prison sentence. Read more in the March issue of The Connexion - find your nearest stockist here.
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