A former police officer who defrauded thousands of people involved with a horse racing betting syndicate has been described as “a rat” by one of his victims.

Michael Stanley admitted misusing money from members of the Layezy Racing Syndicate for several years before his arrest in 2019.

Terry Wildey, a retired hairdresser from Kent, said he and his family had put £200,000 into the scheme after he encouraged his own relatives to invest.

“He’s a rat isn’t he,” he told he BBC, ahead of Stanley’s sentencing at Maidstone Crown Court later.

“He consciously set that up with the sole intention of taking people’s money.”

About £44m was paid into the scheme and an estimated £34m was given back to members, leaving a £10m shortfall which remains unaccounted for.

The former Kent Police sergeant pleaded guilty to running the “Ponzi scheme” in March.

The court was told the syndicate started out with family and friends and grew to more than 6,000 members.

It had a waiting list of 3,000 people at the time it collapsed.

Mr Widley said he got family members involved – including his children, his wife, his mother-in-law and his brother-in-law – because a financial incentive was offered to do so, whereby members got a percentage of any ‘winnings’ of the people they referred.

“Initially [I put in] £1,000, just to try it out,” he said.

“And then you get a portal and you can watch your money grow. And I watched my money grow, and I thought ‘my money’s not growing fast enough because it’s not big enough’, so I put more money in.”

“I always have doubts, with anything that looks like it’s easy money.

“But I never had any doubts going into it because my friends had all made money. And I always thought it was genuine.”

Det Sgt Alec Wood, head of complex fraud at Kent Police’s economic crime unit, said the case was largest fraud the force had ever prosecuted.

Stanley, aged 67, left the profession more than 40 years ago, and Det Sgt Wood said his behaviour did not “reflect the current professionalism and dedication” of officers.

He said Stanley had made “various promises” privately and publicly to members about the scheme’s success.

“Ultimately, when we looked at the evidence this was manifestly false and that was effectively the fraud,” he added.

He described the syndicate as a “clear Ponzi scheme”, adding that in one year, Stanley lost £1m with a betting company.

“The impact on these victims has been utterly immense, many have lost their pensions, their life savings, their medical insurance payouts and they’re facing a very uncertain future as a result of Mr Stanley’s dishonesty,” said Det Sgt Wood.