Mrs Antoniou, from Newport, said: "I hope he goes down for a long time for what he has done. He has made a lot of people suffer.

"I had to carry this for years and my husband died last December not knowing what had happened.

"He (Fuller) used to emphasise how lucky he was to have such good friends. We never knew how good we were," she said.

Fuller owned Fans 1st, a firm offering financial advice to supporters, staff and players at top football clubs like Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, as well as English rugby champions Wasps.

At Newport crown court, Fuller, 47, formerly of East Lynne Gardens, Caerleon, was due to stand trial on 15 charges.

But the former police constable from 1976 to 1988, stationed in Brynmawr and Ebbw Vale, pleaded guilty to five charges.

He admitted one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception from Mrs Antoniou between May and June 2002.

Fuller accepted two counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception against Mr Lewis of £100,000 and £70,000 between July and August 2002.

He also admitted attempting to obtain a money transfer from Zurich Financial Services Plc between October and December 2001 and making a false statutory declaration under the Perjury Act.

His wife, Caroline Fuller, 40, was cleared of obtaining a money transfer by deception and attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception when the prosecution offered no evidence.

Speaking outside the court, Detective Constable Martyn Edwards, from Gwent Police's fraud squad, said: "We are very pleased with the outcome. "This investigation commenced in January 2003,spanned the length and breadth of the country and also took us to Auckland in
New Zealand to gather evidence.

"It is fair to say, although it doesn't feature as part of the indictment, it is a fact that numerous people have invested over the period between 2000 and 2002 in excess of £700,000. That money has
been lost."

He added that Fuller, a former director on QPR's football board had "lived a lavish lifestyle".

Fuller, now living in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was granted conditional bail and has to surrender his passport ahead of his sentence next month while a pre-sentence report is prepared.

The daughter and niece of Fuller's victims, who was also the former best friend of the financial adviser and his wife, has welcomed his conviction.

Helena Payne, a 45-year-old Newport nurse, has also spoken of her trauma at Fuller's betrayal after he persuaded her mother Ursula Antoniou to part with £100,000 used to "buy" false shares.

Mrs Antoniou used to run the Church House Inn and Anton's restaurant and the Elm Tree in St Bride's with her late husband, who was popularly known as Anton.

Fuller then turned his attention to her brother Godfrey Lewis, 67, who suffers ill-health and lives in sheltered accommodation in Llanelli. Mrs Payne said Fuller was a good family friend and someone they had known for 30 years.

"We were distraught," she said. "We had liked Lyndon - he was fun, kind and he seemed generous and that he would bend over backwards to help."

He and his wife became close friends of Mrs Payne and her husband: "They used to invite us over for dinner and they would cook for us. He was always friendly and seemed genuine.

"We went on holiday together to Jersey with him and his wife in 2000 to celebrate that we had known each other for 25 years. We trusted him implicitly.

"Lyndon had a phenomenal lifestyle with the BMW, Rolex watches, first-class holidays in Florida. He always had the nice clothes - Pierre Cardin and she had Karen Millen.

"It was the jet-set lifestyle he wanted - he wanted to be a big player up there with the big boys and he used to drive around in his BMW with the number plate QPR1 - he was an avid QPR fan."

Mrs Payne said the family was unable to recover any money because Fuller had de-registered himself as a financial adviser.

She said their bitter experience makes it difficult to trust people now. "It makes you become bitter and twisted and we will never have our money anywhere other than a bank again.

Mrs Payne said: "It was all about money and greed and I think he was influenced and corrupted by money.

"He knew how ill my father was at the time and there he was in the next room ripping my mother off. I think he is sick and he has no conscience. "We are over the moon with the conviction and relieved that my mother and uncle won't have to give evidence. We are also pleased that he has admitted his guilt."

IN July 2002 the Business Argus ran a front page story on Fuller's announcement that he planned to create 27 new jobs with his company Fans 1st with the help of a £50,000 grant from the National Assembly.

The article said the venture was "a dream business" for Fuller who used to play for QPR's youth team and almost became a professional footballer.

He relocated the company from Essex to a suite of offices in Clarence House, Newport.

Fuller was quoted in the article saying: "It's a fantastic business. Our staff get to know players and when we talk to the fans we also talk about the players with them."

He said the Assembly Investment Grant (AIG) would help him employ 27 people in 18 months.

An Assembly spokeswoman said that although the company was made an offer of an AIG grant, no payments were made.

She said: "The AIG team were aware of the situation when he was charged.

"We understand that the company had told potential clients that we had given them money and an AIG monitoring officer was due to attend the court case to refute these allegations. She will not now be attending court as the defendant has made a guilty plea."

Link
South Wales Argus