A bankrupt Dundee businessman who defrauded his own wife left debts of up to £500,000 with childhood friends, clients and creditors, it has been claimed.
Former financial adviser Fraser Donaldson (54) borrowed massive sums from best pals he played darts with at the Charleston Bar in the city in a catalogue of deals going back to 2009.
Three of the men, and a woman who was both a friend and client, have now come forward to further shame the fraudster, who was handed a three-month deferred sentence at Arbroath Sheriff Court last month after forging his wife Linda’s signature to remortgage their house without her knowledge.
Speaking exclusively to The Courier, the lenders told how Donaldson asked for ever-increasing cash loans for tens of thousands of pounds, while his business and personal life was crashing down around him.
After speaking out during sentencing, Linda Donaldson has again come forward, claiming her husband’s debts would rack up to somewhere approaching £500,000.
She said he had taken out up to £100,000 in loans with friends that she knew, and had around £200,000 in debt from his failed business, on top of the remortage.
”I really can’t put into words how it makes me feel,” said Linda, who lost her home in Newbigging to the bank and now lives in a caravan.
”I can’t believe that somebody I lived with and loved for 13 years could go behind their back and (let down) these people that are close friends.
”I just can’t believe it has happened. I just feel so much for these people who are never going to get anything back from this.”
Donaldson, who has been made bankrupt, sent Linda a text message from a mobile phone the day after his court appearance on July 31, which simply read: ”Congratulations”.
Edinburgh solicitor Nigel Beaumont, who represented Donaldson, said his client had been sacked from his job following the outcome of the court case and did not wish to comment.
Mr Beaumont said none of the people who loaned money to his client had applied to get anything back through bankruptcy procedures.
Donaldson grew up in the Menzieshill area of Dundee and was part of a close-knit group of friends who had gone drinking together and followed the same football team since the 1980s.
When the requests for money started in 2009 most were happy to help out an old buddy. However, as the amounts began to snowball, so did fears that they would never see the cash again.
By the time he was declared bankrupt, the full extent of his debt began to emerge.
The Courier spoke to four former friends who loaned thousands of pounds to Donaldson.’We always knew him as Mr Reliable’Ian Cruickshank (57), from Ancrum Drive, Dundee, said he had been ”hit” for £13,000 in 2009 after Donaldson, a lifelong friend, asked him to take out a loan in his own name.
He claimed Donaldson had previously borrowed £5,000 from him, which he paid back in full, giving him no reason to doubt his motives.
”We used to go to the football together and drink together he was the best friend you could ask for until all this happened,” Mr Cruickshank said.
”He came down and said he was looking for a big favour. I didn’t know at the time that he was doing the same to other people.
”He said he wanted to buy a share in a mortgage company and he applied for the loan with Lloyds TSB on my computer, which was approved within minutes.
”I didn’t worry about it until months later when he stopped making the repayments.”
For the first few months Donaldson kept up the repayments of around £330 per month in cash to Mr Cruickshank, but he claims these dried up and the contact then stopped altogether.
Mr Cruickshank said he began to suspect the worst when Donaldson’s stepson called to ask if he had been in touch asking for money.
After paying the remaining £13,000 in full out of his own pocket, Mr Cruickshank has now given up hope of getting it back.
”I was at his (Donaldson’s) wedding to Linda and all that sort of thing. We were best pals and he has left me in the lurch,” he said.
”As far as I’m aware there are still loads of people in Dundee that he owes. One of his pals loaned him £25,000 and another £10,000.
”He was never a money grabber or anything like that we always knew him as Mr Reliable and he never caused anybody any problems.”’He has taken my children’s inheritance’Denise Owen (52), from Hereford, claims she loaned Donaldson nearly £30,000, while he was acting as her financial adviser around two years ago.
Donaldson was a childhood friend of Mrs Owen’s ex-husband, and she had continued to use him as a financial adviser after their separation in the mid-1990s.
Mrs Owen said Donaldson helped her sell a property with a view to obtaining a buy-to-let mortgage in September 2010, before he asked for money.
”He knew I had the profits from the original sale and asked me for a loan, saying the tax man was after him to do with an old company he was working for.
”Having known him for quite a few years I never asked how much, but I couldn’t believe it when he asked for £30,000.”
An accountant by trade, Mrs Owen said she discussed the loan with her new husband and eventually agreed to hand over the money on September 6 that year.
She claimed Donaldson said he would secure the loan against a property he had in West Street, Dundee, which he was preparing to sell.
Mrs Owen showed The Courier letters from Donaldson’s solicitor, stating that Donaldson agreed to pass over proceeds from the sale of the property.
She said: ”We found out the property was mortgaged to the hilt and there were no proceeds available. I just feel totally aggrieved for myself and my husband, who didn’t even known him.
”I am completely devastated by it all and I can’t move on he has taken my children’s inheritance. I was on my own for 12 years building up some form of money and he has taken it all from me.”
On March 24 this year Donaldson emailed Mrs Owen, assuring her she would receive some repayment.
The email read: ”If you can wait another 10 days, I should have at least some money to give you.”
She has not heard from him since.’He never came face-to-face with any of us’Kevin Dolan (53), who lives in the Dudhope area of Dundee, said he was a guarantor for Donaldson’s share in a company.
”He first asked me for £200 which I gave him and he paid me back no problem at all,” he said. ”Then he asked me if I would go as guarantor for a company for up to £1,500, and then after a year he asked me to up it to £5,000.
”He had never let me down so I thought nothing of it. Three months later I got a letter saying he had been declared bankrupt and I had been stung for £5,000.”
Mr Dolan said he was left with a bill for £180 per month and a further £146 per month for the interest.
He showed The Courier letters stating Donaldson had been declared bankrupt and that he was liable for his debt as guarantor.
During a brief phone call, Donaldson told Mr Dolan the bank had frozen his account.
”The most annoying thing is that he never came face-to-face with any of us,” said Mr Dolan. ”I’m thinking about going to the Citizens Advice Bureau to see if I can sue him or take him to small claims court.”’We were great friends’Tom Henderson (58), from Dundee, said he took out a loan from the Bank of Scotland after Donaldson asked to borrow money.
He showed The Courier a chequebook stub indicating he wrote a cheque to a Fraser Donaldson on November 16 2009.
He added: ”Just before Christmas he phoned me up asking if he could come up and speak to me about borrowing money,” said Mr Henderson, who works as a health care manager and lives in the Coldside area.
”He paid all the interest, but at the end of the day he is still due me money. I am continuing to pay the money back I had no option.
”We were great friends, I had known him for years. We had been drinking together in the Charleston Bar since we were 18, so it must have been around 35 years I don’t know how it came round to this.”