Man jailed for trying to sell The Ritz

An out-of-work truck driver has been jailed for five years for trying to sell London's exclusive Ritz Hotel for £250 million.

Anthony Lee had persuaded a financier and a property dealer that he was an associate of the Barclay brothers, the hotel's owners, reports the BBC.

In what the judge called 'an elaborate and outrageous scam', Lee intimated that the brothers had secret reasons for selling their hotel and wanted to do it through a third party.

The two interested buyers handed over a deposit of £1m, but when the sale failed to go through, it was never returned.

It is thought Lee, 49, from North Yorkshire, contrived the sting as a form of revenge for a previous property deal that had gone wrong.