You were warned the Olympian scammers were starting early. Seems it's not only ticket tykes and touts that are getting ahead of the Games, though. One East London fraudster appears to have lured 550 Slovakian workers to London on the promise of jobs on the Olympic site and accommodation aboard 3 cruise ships at George V Dock, Stratford.
Nigel Lewis protests his innocence, in the face of BBC London's report, claiming personal heartache that his preposterous sounding proposal has gone tits up but the fact that the unfortunate migrant workers had to stump up £600 a head to bag a piece of Lewis' Olympic 'construction and cruise liner' dream leads us to suspect he was not wholly thinking of the best way to help the ODA achieve their goals on time. The BBC London report will be aired on Monday.
The misled Slovaks aren't the only unhappy victims of 2012 machinations. Tom and Rita Glenister of Barnet have today conceded to the court and agreed to cough up the £33.35 they've been withholding as the Olympic portion of their council tax for the last 2 years. Their protest - that we initially reported on last year, and like those in Bexley and the pensioner in Merton who was facing jail earlier this year - was that all Britons should contribute towards the cost of the Games. The couple were also previously ready to go to jail over the issue, but changed their mind. A bullish Tom Glenister said:
I have faced Doodlebugs, the Third Reich, and terrorism, but when they say this could affect my son and his estate in future - I did not like that... If I had been single and had no hostages to fortune I might be prepared to go all the way to jail.
The Glenisters will now have to cough up over a grand in court costs. If only they'd been compelled to volunteer for the Games as community service too.
Image by Matthew Gidley via the Londonist Flickrpool
