Achilleas Michalis Kallakis (born Stefan Michalis Kollakis on 3 September 1968) is responsible for the UK's largest ever mortgage fraud, of over £760 million, and has been called "Britain's most successful serial confidence trickster". By making a slight change to his name, purporting to be related to an oil and property tycoon and using a corrupt lawyer, he was able to defraud banks into giving him mortgages on offices with inflated valuations. He and his accomplice Alexander Williams were successfully prosecuted by the UK's Serious Fraud Office in 2013. Kallakis and Williams succeeded in bypassing fraud and due diligence checks by the banks despite having a previous convictions for fraud in 1995 and warning being raised about their lawyer who escaped prosecution.

Early life and family

Kollakis was born in Ealing, west London, on 3 September 1968, the son of Michael S Kollakis and Erinoula Angelinakis, who married in Glamorgan in 1967. His father was a port captain and once ran an unsuccessful nightclub in Liverpool. The family lived in Ealing. He is the nephew of shipping magnate Lou Kollakis. He attended the

University of Buckingham , mottoeng = Flying on Our Own Wings , established = 1973; as university college1983; as university , type = Private , endowment = , administrative_staff = 97 academic, 103 support , chance ...

where he met his future partner in crime Martin Lewis.

Criminal career

Kollakis once worked as a travel agent in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

. His first conviction for fraud was for the sale of bogus manorial titles to Americans in the early 1990s with his conspirator Martin Lewis. After their conviction, Kollakis changed his name to Achilleas Kallakis and Martin Lewis to Alexander Martin Williams. In the early 2000s, Kallakis and Williams began a new fraud, using various aliases, offshore trusts and fake references to borrow large sums of money to buy prime London properties, often for more than they were worth. He bought buildings let to the British Home Office in Croydon and the headquarters of the

Telegraph Media Group Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG; previously the Telegraph Group) is the proprietor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph''. It is a subsidiary of Press Holdings. David and Frederick Barclay acquired the group on 30 July 2004, af ...

at 111

Buckingham Palace Road Buckingham Palace Road is a street that runs through Victoria, London, from the south side of Buckingham Palace towards Chelsea, forming the A3214 road. It is dominated by Victoria Station. History In the 18th century, the road was known as ...

in Victoria, which he purchased from the

Barclay brothers Sir David Rowat Barclay (27 October 1934 – 10 January 2021) and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay (born 27 October 1934), commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaires. They were identical twin brothers ...

in 2007. He owned 31

Brompton Square Brompton Square is a garden square in London's Brompton district, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. History The initial development of the square was undertaken by James Bonnin in 1821. Listed buildings Many of the houses that ...

, bought in the mid-2000s for £28 million, and had the entire garden dug out to a depth of 30 feet to build a three-storey basement. The project was abandoned in 2008 after the Kallakis was jailed and the property went into receivership, remaining a building site for 9 years before being sold to the Issa brothers for £25m in 2017. Kallakis lived a luxurious lifestyle, gambling in London's casinos and owning several cars, including a

Bentley Azure The Bentley Azure is a four-seater convertible grand tourer produced by British automobile manufacturer Bentley Motors. The first version debuted in 1995 on the Bentley Continental R platform and was made until 2003. After a three-year break, ...

, another Bentley, a Ferrari Scaglietti and a Mercedes. He falsely claimed to be an "ambassador for the Republic of San Marino" and the author of ''Maritime Registries of the World'' and ''The Wonders of Italy'', and to serve on a committee of the National Portrait Gallery in London. The fraud began to be discovered in 2008 when a German bank did some background checks on Kallakis after

Allied Irish Banks Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. is one of the so-called Big Four commercial banks in Ireland. AIB offers a full range of personal, business and corporate banking services. The bank also offers a range of general insurance products such as home, trav ...

attempted to sell some of the loans it had made to him. In 2013, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and Williams to five for defrauding the

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...

, AIB and other lenders. In 2020, David Clarke, chair of the

Fraud Advisory Panel The Fraud Advisory Panel is a United Kingdom, UK charitable organization, charitable organisation. Incorporated in 2001, the Panel focuses on offering advice and education to the general public on how to mitigate and avoid fraud. Panel members hav ...

charity used the Kallakis and Williams fraud as a case study to illustrate how fraudsters commit large scale commercial mortgage fraud and weaknesses in bank controls when addressing the Law Society,

Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi), registered as Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies and formerly the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, is a British defence and security think tank. ...

and South Wales Chamber of Commerce. Their crime also featured in an article published in the Citizenship by Investment Report 2020.

Personal life

In 1995, Kollakis married Pamela A. Stachowsky in Ealing.Stefanos M Kollakis mentioned in the record of Stachowsky and Stefanos M Kollakis.
Family Search. Retrieved 28 September 2017. They had four children together.

References

External links

Serious Fraud Office https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2013/01/16/achilleas-kallakis-alexander-williams-guilty-defrauding-banks-property-financing-deals/

RUSI Webinar https://rusi.org/event/covid-19-fraud-organised-crime-nexus-threats-challenges-and-responses
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kallakis, Achilleas 1968 births Living people British people convicted of fraud Travel agents (people) English people of Greek descent English fraudsters People from Ealing