A former church warden who took £5.3million from friends and parishioners with the promise he could invest it and make a profit has been jailed for six years.

Former Merrill Lynch investment banker Patrick Coppeard, 49, of Spring Grove, Loughton, appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court today for sentencing having previously admitted fraud by abuse of position at the same court earlier this month.

Many of his 62 victims were in court to hear him sent to prison for the offence, which spanned five years up to 2013 while he was warden at St John’s Church in Buckhurst Hill.

The complex fraud between January 2008 and May 2013 saw victims conned out of £5,356,497, of which £3.4million was lost.

The former magistrate and chair of the church’s development and buildings committee took money from his fellow worshippers on the pretext it would be invested with guaranteed high returns.

Investigating officer Dc John Vickers said of the sentancing: "Coppeard preyed on his closest friends and family for his own gain. He has devastated the lives of a considerable number of people.”