Gangster Tony Sales reveals how he got away with stealing £30M in new book

A reformed violent criminal dubbed ‘Britain’s greatest fraudster’ has revealed in a new book how he stole £30million during a 30-year spree – and managed to evade capture for six years. 

Tony Sales, 46, who had a dysfunctional childhood in Greenwich, says he was ‘addicted’ to crime and dabbled in everything from mortgage fraud to stealing million-pound super yachts.  

The seeds for a life of crime were sown early, he says, with minor discretions such as shoplifting as a child eventually escalating into sophisticated cyber crime – as Sales found ever riskier ways to fund his passion for designer clothes, flash cars and five-star holidays. 

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Reformed criminal Tony Sales, 46, was once dubbed ‘Britain’s greatest fraudster’, for managing to go on the run for six years after stealing more than £30million during his criminal career

Sales documents in his new book The Big Con how he funded a life of flash cars, designer watches and lavish holidays through cyber and identity fraud (Pictured on holiday during the height of his criminal career)

Sales documents in his new book The Big Con how he funded a life of flash cars, designer watches and lavish holidays through cyber and identity fraud (Pictured on holiday during the height of his criminal career)

The boy from 'bandit country': Sales, pictured on holiday as a child, says growing up in Greenwich influenced his life of crime, as he became unable to escape his criminal connections

The boy from ‘bandit country’: Sales, pictured on holiday as a child, says growing up in Greenwich influenced his life of crime, as he became unable to escape his criminal connections

His new book, The Big Con, details how his arrogant mantra was ‘Sales never fails’, and documents some of the brutal encounters he had in pursuit of ill-gotten gains that saw him fleece banks, jewellers, fruit machines and even dangerous gangsters. 

In his late 30s, during a 12-month stint in Belmarsh for passport forgery, his third time at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, he had a jail cell epiphany, sparked when his son, then ten, sobbed at the sight of seeing his father in prison.  

Sales, who has three sons aged 24, 20, and 18, and one daughter, 16, with his wife Lynn, decided he was done with crime and made a request to join the police’s fraud-prevention programme. He now advises big companies – and members of the public – on how to avoid being scammed on the internet. 

He tells FEMAIL that he cried when he finished the book, and that it works as an explainer as to how many people fall into criminality. 

Brought up by loving grandparents in Greenwich, Sales  had to witness violent domestic abuse against his mother by his step-father - something he would seek brutal revenge for years later

Brought up by loving grandparents in Greenwich, Sales  had to witness violent domestic abuse against his mother by his step-father – something he would seek brutal revenge for years later 

The early chapters recount a childhood destroyed by sexual abuse and domestic abuse against his mother – years later he would seek violent retribution against his step-father. 

He shares how his mum, Kim, was left with a head ‘swollen like a watermelon’ and broken ribs at the hands of his step-father and how, as a grown man, he stalked his mum’s aggressor to seek revenge with a baseball bat, attacking him down an alleyway. 

Sales is unapologetic about seeking revenge: ‘I’m looking at that [violence] as a kid and I hear my mum screaming. Even right now I can hear my mum’s screams. Sooner or later, this stuff that happens in childhood plays out as the criminal element in the adulthood. I don’t regret it.’ 

Living the life he'd dreamed of: Sales says he was desperate to escape the nickname of 'little tramp' that he'd been called as a child - and used criminal gains to fund a luxury lifestyle

Living the life he’d dreamed of: Sales says he was desperate to escape the nickname of ‘little tramp’ that he’d been called as a child – and used criminal gains to fund a luxury lifestyle

Sobering: Landing in prison left him feeling alone and convinced his wife Lynn would leave him

Sobering: Landing in prison left him feeling alone and convinced his wife Lynn would leave him

The violence continued into his 20s; a night at a club in Southend where a doorman had humiliated him for being drunk saw Sales return with a 2.2 gun. High on coke, he fired the gun and Sales was promptly arrested by armed police, getting a two-year sentence. Ever creative, in prison he would sell his urine to fellow prisoners addicted to heroin so they could pass drug tests. 

Sales says he became addicted to crime and the luxurious trappings it brought, desperate to shed the ‘little tramp’ status he’d been given as a youngster by peers. 

He explains: ‘Poverty and trauma are the biggest causes of crime globally’ and admits that despite ‘grafting hard’ to support his growing family after getting out of prison, ‘I could hear the little devil on my shoulder telling me that I could just commit a few simple frauds, steal a quick few IDs.’

One job saw him stealing Rolex watches and diamonds to order, while he managed to procure a £890,000 Sunbeam luxury yacht by ‘dressing really well’ and creating a fake ‘red-hot profile of a high-net-worth individual’.  

Stealing ‘brand spanking new, top-of-the-range’ cars including S-Type and R-Type Jaguars, Range Rovers, Mercedes became pedestrian. Identity fraud and fake mortgages became Sales’ retirement plan but his crimes were increasingly risky, with one episode seeing him kidnapping lawyers to ensure they wouldn’t ‘do a runner’ with illegally procured funds.

I could hear the little devil on my shoulder telling me that I could just commit a few simple frauds, steal a quick few IDs…

He admits he thought he was an expert in finance, knowing exactly how the credit system worked and learning from the mistakes of those who got caught. 

He maintains that he was always a fan of the victimless crime, and when a police officer in Sheffield revealed he’d stolen the identity of a woman’s dead father – and she was ‘crying her eyes out’ about it, he says the realisation of the human impact of his crimes came like a ‘kick in the stomach’.  

With the net closing in on him, he turned on his heels and ended up on the run for six years, hiding in plain sight and moving his family twice to dodge capture – all without telling wife Lynn and his children. 

Living in a six-bedroom house in Bromley, Sales became paranoid about capture, even taking three of his own teeth out with pliers so that dental records couldn’t track him. 

The Big Con by Tony Sales is out now

The Big Con by Tony Sales is out now

Eventually, two policemen on a lunch break at a petrol station in Basildon became his undoing, he was questioned and they realised there was a warrant out for his arrest – a 12-month prison sentence followed, and a teary confessional phone call to his wife.   

What would he say to a young Tony that’s out there now embarking on a life of criminal activity? 

‘I tell them the police are super smart. If you haven’t been caught yet then you’re going to get caught eventually. No matter how big, how much of a tough, strong bada** you think you are.’ 

BBC US have expressed an interest in turning Sales’ story into a TV series – and he’d love to do more acting himself. 

He says he’s pleased to have ‘broken the cycle’ of crime in his family, even if his kids’ mates now know all about his past. 

‘My daughter said the other day “Dad, my mates are saying they’ve seen your book”, that was weird.’ 

A couple of days before The Big Con hits the shelves, he picked up the son whose tears as a young child made his father go straight, from university.

‘He loves it. He’s been there for two months now and I’ve actually contributed to that happening. That me makes me proud.’

The Big Con by Tony Sales is out now