'Lord of Fraud' Hugh Rodley admits child sexual abuse offences after NCA inquiry
The National Crime Agency reports that Hugh James Rodley, previously jailed over two large-scale frauds, has admitted making and possessing indecent images of children. The case sits outside conventional financial-crime reporting, but it concerns a figure whose fraud convictions are well known to the sector and illustrates how NCA arrests on one matter can surface entirely separate offending.
- Rodley admitted six counts of making indecent images or videos of children and one count of possession at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on 22 October.
- A laptop seized after his 4 December arrest held 198 indecent images, 19 at category A, 12 at category B and 167 at category C, with at least 806 related searches.
- After a second arrest on 27 January, officers found an iPhone containing 295 indecent images used almost immediately after he was bailed.
- Rodley was previously jailed for eight years in 2009 over an attempt to steal £229m from a Japanese bank and for seven years in 2012 for defrauding more than 700 pensioners of £6m.
- He returns to Cheltenham for sentencing on 22 November.