A retired City banker who cheated churchgoers out of millions in a vast fraud told one victim over the phone: ‘God has told me to give you a ring.’ Over five years Patrick Coppeard collected nearly £5.4million, most of which he blew in online gambling while trying to make up for losses. When he finally handed himself into police and was asked how much he had left in his account, the former broker for investment bank Merrill Lynch replied: ‘Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.’ The married father of three, a former magistrate, has now been jailed for six years after admitting a single charge of fraud by abuse of position. He had ... (full story)