A SERIAL fraudster who spent five years in prison in the 1990s has been jailed for another five after deceiving the likes of the Archbishop of Canterbury in a £2.5 million scam.

Herefordshire-born businessman Peter Sainsbury, who was also detained in Beirut in the 1970s for fraudulent bankruptcy, set up a prisoners’ charity following his release that attracted Dr Rowan Williams – who was then Archbishop of Wales – as a patron.

But his work was found to be a cover last week after the 68-year-old, now of Battersea, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at a London court.

The former financier won backers such as Lord Jeffrey Archer when he set up The People’s Opportunity to Work Trust in 1993 and did genuinely help former convicts to find work for a time.

But he later used the organisation to con victims, which included a telecommunications company and various pensioners, out of their hard-earned cash. A second man, Kirkvine Ellis, of south London, was also jailed for three years on the same charge at Southwark Crown Court but Sainsbury himself was not present due to illness.

He was living at Perton Court in Stoke Edith when the agricultural consultancy firm he set up was linked to a Lebanese bank scam in 1977.

He later moved to London and by 1990 had taken part in a £3 million deception which involved him posing as a member of the famous supermarket family of the same name.

Last week the Metropolitan Police revealed that Sainsbury and his colleagues had opened 40 separate bank accounts in order to commit fraud, while a host of high-profile patrons, including MPs, MEPs and actors had since withdrawn their support.

Detective Sergeant Richard Ward said: “Sainsbury was without a doubt the mastermind of this scam and the harm he caused with his persistence in defrauding members of the public, public bodies and businesses was substantial.

He has now been stopped.”