A RETIRED company director from Hampshire was fleeced of more than £50,000 savings after being duped in a one million pound international racing scam, a court heard.

Deryck Blythe, 65, was taken in by a smooth-talking operator who regularly persuaded him to part with large sums of money after answering a newspaper advert. Investors were lured by the prospect of making a juicy £5,000 a week - but Mr Blythe backed the biggest loser of his life.

Within hours of leaving his details on the answer phone, he was contacted by a man calling himself Geoffrey Sanderson who offered his services as a professional tipster for a fee of £5,000.

Mr Blythe agreed and paid the cash into the account of Christopher Sullivan. Initially he broke even on Sanderson's tips but then fell for the big sting.

Sanderson said he had a certainty and told Mr Blythe, from Bransgore in the New Forest, that as a member of a syndicate he would have to send £7,000 to the same account - despite not knowing the identity of the horse.

A few days later, he heard the horse had won at 12-1 and his winnings amounted to £84,000. But then came the bombshell - the bookmaker had gone bust, and Sanderson now desperately needed more cash to pay accountants and lawyers to get the cash.

Sanderson conned Mr Blythe for several months with the same excuse that he needed more and more cash to sort out the problem.

The victim ploughed more money into Sullivan's account as well as those of three other associates also living in the Brighton area, receiving less than £2,000 back which he later accepted was a sweetener. Eventually he contacted the police, who arrested Sullivan. And it quickly became clear that Mr Blythe wasn't the only person who had been ripped off.

Prosecutor Stephen Parish said when detectives trawled through Sullivan's accounts, they discovered more than £1m had passed through his hands in about three years, which had been wired to accomplices in Spain and Ireland.

For his role Sullivan received a ten per cent commission.

Sullivan, convicted of conspiring to obtain money transfers by deception, acted as a lieutenant for a gang of professional criminals operating from abroad.

Det Con James Kyle, who led the investigation, told the Daily Echo: "Without Sullivan, the fraud could not have worked. He was the banker who received all the victims' monies and then sent them on to his accomplices.

"Sullivan and his criminal associates have caused untold misery to the victim, and he has never shown any remorse.''

He added: "It is a salutary lesson to anyone involved in gambling, that they should know exactly with whom they are dealing before parting with any of their money."

Sullivan, 63, from Hove, East Sussex, was bailed to November 28 for sentence.