A CITY trader from Pontypool is facing jail for conning friends and colleagues out of nearly £1.8 million to feed his gambling addiction after promising healthy returns from a racehorse trading scheme.

Stewart Jones, 35, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to fraudulently taking sums of up to £880,000 from six men, including his former UBS boss, James Robinson, from May last year.

When Mr Robinson and his brother Danny became suspicious about their investments, Jones faked an HSBC bank statement and Tattersalls invoice.

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said Jones, who was born in Pontypool, had enjoyed a successful career in the City, earning six-figure salaries as he hopped from JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Barclays, rising to become head of UK emerging markets at UBS.

Jones also had a genuine interest in horse-racing and became involved in trading horses as a blood stock agent, acting as a middle man for various jockey clubs. But after May last year, all the money he received for dealing in horses went instead on his gambling addiction which over one year amounted to £3.8 million. Between May and November last year, Jones took £408,150 from Danny Robinson promising a return of up to 20%.

His brother James, who was defrauded out of £880,000, said he felt “angry and hurt” that his friend of 10 years could abuse his trust leaving him “professionally embarrassed”.

Marcus Hurst invested £120,000 of life savings and redundancy money from the Bank of America in Jones’s scheme.

Head-hunter George Nice told of the strain on his marriage as a result of investing £49,520 in life savings.

Marcus Fernandez, who handed Jones £230,000, said: “I’m not a wealthy man who earns hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and it’s hit me very hard. I’m having to restart my career in order to survive.

“Stewart was well aware that I have children and he was happy to have their home put at risk to feed his gambling habit.”

Klas Hellman also invested £100,000 in Jones’s scheme which saw “zero” horse trading in the period, Mr Polnay said.

When he was arrested in March this year, Jones admitted he had been a compulsive gambling addict from around 2007 and had been to rehab in 2010.

Jones will be sentenced later.