JIM Phillips thought he knew his best mate inside out – they’d been pals for decades and shared a successful events business, boasting celebrity clients from around the world, including Ant and Dec and Tony Blair.
Jim was even the Best Man at his wedding and godfather to his son. But what the businessman didn’t know was that his trusted friend, referred to only as Tom for legal reasons, was living an elaborate fantasy life built on deception and lies.
Jim was left reeling after discovering his best friend and business partner was living a life of deception and lies Credit: Supplied
Tom even invented a bogus deal with Madonna Credit: Getty
Jim with pals at Tom’s wedding – their close friendship dated back decades Credit: Supplied
In 2006 the pair organised a high profile event with Tony Blair Credit: SUPPLIED
After finding himself caught up in a nightmare that left him questioning everything, Jim has unravelled the bizarre experience in his extraordinary new revenge memoir, 108 Psychopaths and Me, which tells how he eventually discovered the truth about the scams.
Looking back the 59-year-old recalled: “He was an absolute charmer, I believed him.
“We were living the life, we were turning over a good seven figures a year, running high profile events with the British Lions and the England squad at the World Cups in Japan and Germany.
“We had unforgettable experiences with the likes of Foo Fighters, Gorillaz, Kasabian, Paul Weller, Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Watching Sir Tom Jones belt out gospel tunes is not something you forget in a hurry.
“We worked on the London Olympic bid with Seb Coe. There were events with Ant and Dec, Tony Blair, Johnny Vaughan, Ray Winston, Sean Locke and Lee Mack.
“Budgets for our high profile events were anywhere from £200,000 to over a million pounds.
“When England didn’t qualify for the Euros in 2008 we created a team of name-a-likes and took them instead – we had a van driver called John Terry.
“We were creative cheeky chappies, we were both sports fanatics and it was a really exciting time. We had a fantastic future planned. We had the world at our feet.”
But in 2009, after riding high for six years, Tom’s behaviour changed. Jim explained: “Invoices were going out for all these jobs that never came to fruition.
“At first I’m thinking happy days, he’s creating all these fantastic jobs around the world that are going to bring in millions and millions of pounds, and make us both very wealthy.
“£693,000 was supposed to come from various jobs that never actually existed – he was impersonating clients, sending fake emails – that was stage one.
“Stage two was when he started impersonating bank managers, faking correspondence from the bank saying the money’s on its way – all done on Barclays headed paper or email addresses.
“Stage three, he says there’s been a bank error and of course this is accompanied by a flurry of emails from banks confirming it.
“I took his fake correspondence to a big legal company but they believed it was all good too.
“He bombarded me day and night, he had dozens of different mobile numbers on the go at the same time. What was absolutely amazing is that he never made an error because he was constantly switching SIM cards around.
“He was bringing in the big guns at the top of the banking industry, claiming Stephen Hester, CEO of RBS, and Bob Diamond, the CEO of Barclays were helping sort it all out.
Tom pretended he had a lucrative deal lined up with Jessica Ennis Credit: Splash
Jim and Tom enjoyed many wild nights out with friends Credit: Supplied
“In that period I was single, so he was the first person I spoke to in the morning, last person I spoke to at night, and all his impersonated characters in between.
“He pretended there was a huge deal with Nike on the table. He was impersonating people from the UK, China and the US as well.
“He said he had meetings with Madonna and Jessica Ennis. He set up personalised voice messages for some phone numbers to add a level of reality.
“There were a lot of cancelled meetings. I was flying out to LA and Dubai for meetings for jobs that didn’t exist. I’d get 40 text messages a day from his army of people.
“It was just madness but he just got more and more into it, finding new ways and new characters. It must have been exhausting constantly going to get new SIM cards.
“He’d even have different numbers for fake couriers supposedly delivering contracts for non-existent jobs, it was all so detailed.
“The whole thing was quite cunning, I think he got completely addicted to the whole process.”
Jim says Tom then moved to “stage four” when he started having health problems.
Jim with his famous client Johnny Vaughan Credit: Supplied
Jim believed he and Tom were going to become millionaires Credit: Supplied
“He had a slight problem with his throat, then moved that into cancer, and that became terminal cancer apparently brought on by the stress of the bank losing money.
“I just didn’t believe he was capable of inventing something like that. I believed stuff I shouldn’t have, I believed in the pot of gold.”
Pinpointing exactly when he realised his best pal was a liar is “difficult”, says Jim.
“For several months I knew in my heart he was lying – one key moment was when I was invited by my dear friends Ed and Poppy to their wedding in Mallorca – and despite them offering to pay I couldn’t face it because I knew I would have to defend the indefensible and I couldn’t take it.
“It seemed easier to move further into isolation. For months I clung to the belief it might be true because if it was, the outcome was so much better for me.”
But Jim finally confronted his pal outside the Royal Marsden hospital in London as he was heading in for an appointment, after Tom’s brother suggested he could be faking the terminal illness.
He said: “I remember it very clearly, this Range Rover drove past and he goes, ‘We’ll get two of those when the money comes in’.
“Then he turned around and walked into the hospital, and obviously just walked straight out the back again. He did that several times.”
Exasperated, Jim eventually went to Barclays and explained what was going on but because the bank had not actually lost any money they could not launch an investigation.
After two and a half years Tom eventually cracked. He broke down in tears and told Jim that he had hoped to find the money somehow.
Jim told us: “Hardly the actions of a master criminal, I grant you, but, not much sympathy from me. I was so furious, I could see a cricket bat and I was so tempted to pick it up and lather him.
“I went to the police but they said he’s obviously just gone a bit mad. Impersonating bank officials is pretty serious, but they said there’s no real crime and he needs help.
At the height of their success the pair worked with Ant and Dec Credit: Getty
Jim’s new book attempts to unravel his mate’s elaborate deception Credit: Supplied
“It’s a lot easier if someone’s nicking your money and buggering off to Barbados but this was just pointless.
“Then he disappeared, off the system. None of our mutual friends spoke to him, no one saw him, and no one heard from him.
“Ten years later he turned 60 and his pension was maturing, but he had to get my permission to get the money so he got in touch.
“I wasn’t sure whether to fly across the table and lamp him on the chin, or shake his hand.”
Reflecting on the impact of Tom’s lies, Jim said: “It was devastating because of the betrayal, the financial ruin and the feeling of stupidity that I allowed it to happen.
“The question of why never went away and the constant wondering of what happened to him and wondering whether he had ridden off into the sunset unscathed.
“That is why this book and seeing him was so essential – it was my catharsis and the only way I could truly recover from the underlying damage and lack of self esteem. As I say at the end of the book ‘now I am free’.”
108 Psychopaths and Me by Jim Phillips is available now from Wilton Square Books, priced £16.99.
