George Williams posed in publicity shots to show himself as a successful businessman
A man who led a £5.2m magazine fraud affecting up to 15,000 victims has been jailed for seven years.
George Williams, 51, controlled a Liverpool-based team conning firms into paying for adverts in a publication called "Emergency Services News".
They should have produced about 1.2m copies to fulfil their promises to clients but instead police found they only printed 30,000 copies.
Four other men were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court over the scam.
Mortgage defaults
The defendants, who called themselves Weinstein Williams Associates Ltd, were found to have falsely claimed that they worked for the emergency services.
Detectives believe as many as 15,000 victims paid for adverts in publications that either did not materialise or never reached the audience that the team had promised.
Some victims defaulted on mortgage payments to settle bills after being threatened with legal action, Merseyside Police said. One man even sold his work van.
Det Cons Lee Egerton said: "George Williams and team meanwhile lived a life of comfort and luxury on the back of their crimes."
Williams, from Lineacre Road in Liverpool, and his operations manager Gayle Leahair were found guilty at an earlier trial of fraudulent trading and conspiring to commit fraud by false representation.
The fraudsters only printed 30,000 magazines over three years
Leahair and another woman who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit fraud by false representation will be sentenced at a later date.
Sales manager Ronnie Lloyd, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit fraud by false representation, was jailed for 12 months.
The other men, who admitted the same charge, include:
Martin Cullen, who received a nine-month suspended sentence plus 300 hours community service
Tony O'Neill, who received a seven-month suspended sentence plus 300 hours community service
George Randles, who was ordered to do 150 hours community service
