[bots]

A reality television star has appeared in court accused of conspiring to defraud investors in a £3m scam.

The Only Way Is Essex personality Lewis Bloor, 29, appeared alongside five other men at Westminster Magistrates' Court for allegedly dishonestly marketing coloured diamonds for investment purposes.

The court heard there were 50 victims of the alleged fraud with "in excess" of £3m lost.

No pleas were entered.

Mr Bloor, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, appeared in the ITV2 show for three years from 2013 as well as Celebrity Big Brother in 2016.

He was joined in the dock by Joseph Jordan, 26, of Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, George Walters, 27, of Beckenham, Kent, Max Potter, 22, of Enfield, Middlesex, Nathan Wilson, 25, of Brentwood, Essex, and Simon Akbari, 25, of Loughton, Essex.

They are all facing a charge of conspiracy to defraud between 17 May 2013 and 19 June 2014.

Another co-defendant, Danny Chappell, 52, of Bexleyheath, Kent, is accused of entering an arrangement to facilitate the acquisition of criminal property, namely by seeking money for completing renovation works by or on behalf of another person when no such works had been undertaken.

The case has been adjourned to Southwark Crown Court on 19 September.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-49436377

------

oops