Fraudster fleeced couple after exploiting their son’s death from cancer

Running a property business in the millionaires’ mountain hideaway of Gstaad means Paul and Jane Andrews are used to the eccentricities of the super-rich.

So when fellow Brit Louis Welsh got in touch in 2017, saying he wanted to buy a chalet in the Swiss Alps and asking if they were ‘discreet’, they assured him they were.

With his designer gear and vast collection of Rolex watches, the well-heeled Mr Welsh (who spoke of other homes in Dubai, Monaco and Barbados) was quite a character.

He chatted about his entire teams of polo ponies, and the Andrews were bemused to hear he wore a brand new pair of socks every day. 

He and his two children had 27 pairs of skis between them, excessive even in Gstaad.

Louis confided that he had recently lost his wife Tanya to cancer. It had been her dying wish that he settle with their two children in the Swiss mountains.

It was a tragic story. The pair had been together since they were 18 and travelled the world to try to find a cure.

She had died in Switzerland and was buried in Rougemont, a neighbouring village. Louis wanted a home where his children could feel close to their late mother.

Anyone’s heart would go out to such a man. Perhaps Paul’s melted more than most. For the Andrews had also experienced a devastating bereavement. 

Their younger son had also died from cancer, in 2015, aged just 15. In fact, when Paul mentioned his own tragedy, it became apparent that the two families were linked. 

He says: ‘I remember Louis looked at me and said ‘was your son’s name Luke?’ It was. He said he thought his daughter Lydia had been at school with Luke, and had been so upset at his death.’ 

Jane says: ‘His daughter had been at school with Luke. He talked about Lydia, who stood out because she was absent a lot, always heading off to Dubai or Monaco.

‘It was common knowledge that they were extremely wealthy. I was heartbroken for those kids, losing their mother. We wanted to help.’

They were even more desperate to help when Louis told them he also wanted to buy a second property, to set up a cancer hospice. 

‘He reeled us in completely,’ says Jane, bitterly. ‘We fell for his lies.’

For ‘Louis’ Welsh was not a multi-millionaire with a heart as big as his wallet. He was Simon Welsh — a convicted frauster, who was sentenced to six months jail in the UK in 1999 for obtaining property by deception.

A decade later, he was making headlines for targeting those moving in elite social circles. 

Those claiming to be his victims included Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford, and professional polo player Jack Kidd — brother of top model Jodie.

While he had lost his wife in 2015, he played on the Andrews’ sympathy to fleece them, too. By the time they realised his true identity, six months on, they had lost £46,000. 

‘I just felt sick,’ says Jane. ‘The most galling thing was realising we were just the latest in a long line.’

Earlier this month, thanks to the Andrews, justice caught up with Welsh. In court in the town of Vevey, Simon Lee Welsh was found guilty of fraud, and sentenced to 30 months in prison. 

He had already served 596 days in custody, but on his release will be subject to a ten-year expulsion from Switzerland.

Unwilling to simply write off their losses, or take action through the civil courts (as others had previously), the Andrews had reported him to the police. 

With the help of Interpol, officers finally apprehended him on a train bound for Montreux.

Giving judgment, President Franz Moos said. ‘He deliberately used his wife’s illness and death to seek compassion from his victims. He has shown no regret or remorse throughout these proceedings.’

Welsh, 48, shackled in leg irons and wearing handcuffs, looked thin, pale and scruffy, a far cry from his formerly rumbustious self.

No family or friends appeared to be there in support. While the Andrews are disappointed with the length of the sentence — further charges were dropped because of lack of evidence — there are many who will be thrilled to hear Welsh is finally behind bars.

As far back as 2012, significant figures were lining up to say they had been duped by him. 

Mike Rutherford met Welsh on the polo scene and rented him a house in Spain. Yet Welsh did a runner without settling up, leaving Rutherford down £50,000.

Jack Kidd lost more than £35,000. He claimed 30 of his ponies were impounded in Spain, allegedly when Welsh reneged on a deal to pay for their livery.

Julian Worth, who sold his internet company for £140 million, is another Brit living in Gstaad whose dealings with Welsh, over a decade ago now, ended badly. 

Their children were also at the same school (like all good conmen, Welsh based some of his story in truth). Their ‘friendship’ saw him cheated out of £150,000. Mr Worth won a civil case against Welsh but has still not been repaid.

Mr Worth describes Welsh as an arch manipulator. ‘His usual trick is to present himself as your best buddy, presumably having previously identified you as a target. He’s incredibly convincing. I’ve heard of lots of people he owes money to, and I’m sure there are people who haven’t come forward. No one wants to admit they have been taken for an idiot.’

Mr Worth, a witness at last week’s trial, added: ‘What he did to the Andrews is just appalling. He went to depraved lengths with them.’

Certainly Welsh’s cynical exploitation of the Andrews — and their grief — was particularly callous.

Today, telling the awful story for the first time, they produce treasured photos of their beloved ‘Lukey’, brother to Leo, 26. There’s Luke on a train, mid cancer treatment, en route to buy a wig. 

Another shot shows him cuddling the family dog. Their grief is still palpable. As it would have been to ‘Louis’ Welsh. ‘Yet he didn’t care,’ Jane says. ‘He used Luke, and us.’

Their nightmare began after Paul had shown Welsh and his children, Lydia (then 17) and her brother Louis Jnr, 24, around a few properties, worth up to £8 million.

A couple of days later came the first request to borrow money.

‘I got a panicked call from Welsh saying he’d taken his wife’s Range Rover out of storage without sorting the insurance on it and had been stopped by the police.

‘There was an on-the-spot fine of 12,000 Swiss francs (£9,350). He said he had almost 10,000 in cash, but needed a further 2,600. If he didn’t pay by lunchtime the car would be impounded and his kids would never forgive him. He said he absolutely hated to ask, but he would give the money back as soon as he could get to the bank in Geneva.’

Paul admits he was incredulous that a supposed multi-millionaire was unable to raise cash. 

‘I remember saying to Jane ‘do you think it’s a scam?’, but we felt bad even thinking that because of his children.’

It was plausible, though, that he was having trouble accessing his cash because of strict rules in Switzerland about bringing money into the country, so they duly handed over the cash. Later, they would discover there had been no car incident.

Meanwhile, Welsh had put in an offer on a chalet but his financial situation seemed complicated. 

Paul explains: ‘Everything was tied up to protect his kids’ money, he said, so the property was going to be bought in his daughter’s name.

‘It was all for tax reasons — otherwise he would be liable for millions. He kept saying he’d made millions with his dad on a property deal in Dubai, but they needed papers, signatures and licences to move money from Moldova to Switzerland.

‘It was explained to us that it was very important to keep him out of the paperwork. But every single dealing was backed up with paperwork from his lawyer.’

Within weeks, they had started to regard Louis as a friend. ‘He and I would go for a beer,’ says Paul. When plans to purchase this property collapsed — partly because of freak flooding in the area, which Welsh claimed had put him off — the pressure was on to find an alternative.

The Welsh family had been staying in a local hotel, but it was by now peak season and it was fully booked. Jane and Paul arranged for them to move into a rented chalet, just for five days originally (though they were still there months later, rent unpaid, claim the Andrews).

They became increasingly concerned about Welsh’s health. ‘He would get breathless, said he had a heart problem and needed an operation to replace a valve.’

Welsh still had no car, so they offered him theirs to get to hospital appointments. Then there was the expensive treatment. 

‘He needed to pay for the doctor. Then he said he’d been told about an injection which worked quicker than the pills. We helped him out with money, again.’

They are very aware that, in hindsight, this all sounds mad. ‘But he presented like a man who was desperate to sort it all out,’ says Paul. 

‘He was flying off here, there and everywhere. There would be endless phone calls, him saying ‘I really need to get this done’.

‘Some days he’d say there was so much red tape dealing with the Swiss system that he was going to pull out completely, but that the children were distraught at this. He said Lydia wasn’t talking to him, that she’d been crying at her mother’s grave.’

Over six months they handed over £46,000 to Welsh. ‘It was a few hundred here, a thousand there,’ says Paul. As well as medicine, they funded flights. One payment, for around £8,000, was for ‘essential documents’.

Eventually, they started to fear for their money. ‘It got to the point that we were asking every day, ‘look, can you get our cash?’. He’d say ‘yes of course, but as you know it’s all tied up with the big transfer’. 

Once, he tried to pawn one of his watches, but came back saying they required a permit saying you lived here. At the time we thought at least he was trying.’

And there were incidents that seemed to back up his claims. For example, Welsh told them his best mate from Russia had taken over two floors of the Alpina Hotel, one of Gstaad’s finest. 

Paul said: ‘We went for a walk and passed his rented chalet when a car with a Russian plate pulled up and a very glamorous girl got out. We said ‘well, he’s not lying about that’.’

But, six months in, having discovered Welsh had taken their car to Montreux without premission, Jane alerted police, worried about him having an accident for which they would be liable. 

She was concerned enough to call ‘a friend who knows everyone’ — breaking the couple’s promise of discretion. 

‘She knew Lydia and Louis Jnr, so I asked what she knew about their dad. There was a pause. She said, ‘That’s not his name. He’s called Simon’. I asked what she knew about him. She said, ‘how long have you got’?’

A quick Google of ‘Simon Welsh’ and Gstaad floored them. ‘It was all there,’ says Jane. 

‘Reports of how he had scammed rich and famous people, reports of how he was wanted all over the world.’

They were in a cold sweat by now. ‘We phoned the police again,’ says Paul. ‘Then I phoned him. I said ‘hello Simon’ and there was silence, but even then he started justifying himself, saying he was relieved we knew who he really was and that he still wanted to buy the chalet. When I told him the police were involved he got angry and said he wasn’t coming back to Switzerland. He said he would have our car sent back to us. He didn’t, of course. It was eventually found at Stansted Airport.’

Thus began the unravelling of Welsh’s web of lies. His trial ended the idea that he was a family man. 

It emerged he had been having an affair and had two children with his mistress, one born while Tanya was terminally ill. Lydia and Louis Jnr were not aware they had half-siblings until his arrest.

The court heard that Welsh owed over £150,000 to three different Swiss banks and £18,500 to his children’s former school.

Just as he had denied attempting to scam Rutherford and Kidd, he claimed his financial troubles in Switzerland were more about cash flow problems, than fraud.

Was he ever a wealthy businessman, though? The toilet cubicle business his father and two uncles set up in Cheshire in 1974 had considerable success, boasting a £5 million turnover by the late 1990s — but it seems that Simon had little to do with it.

Even his father, Stephen, has pretty much disowned him. One family member confirmed this week: ‘Nobody in the family has seen him for years. His father isn’t in contact with him. Things have happened that made it difficult.’

Our investigations suggest that by 2003 Welsh had already upset business contacts.

By then he was living with Tanya (Wollard) in a rented home in affluent Virginia Water, Surrey. 

They’d set up a company called X2 Racing Ltd and Welsh was telling potential business partners how much money his father had and how he wanted to invest some of it.

According to one source, he had investors lined up, waiting for £1 million supposedly coming into Welsh’s bank account from Monaco. But it never came, and Welsh allegedly ‘disappeared’ leaving at least one upset business partner and a string of creditors.

One business associate, who asked not to be named, described Welsh as a ‘a Walter Mitty character’ who ‘did nothing but lie’.

There is now quite a line of livid ex-associates of Welsh. It is to future associates that Jane and Paul appeal, though, aware that he will soon be a free man. 

‘Do not believe a word he says,’ they urge. ‘Don’t make the mistakes we did.’

Additional reporting: Alexandra Williams and Stephanie Condron