A SELF-styled messenger of God has been jailed for five years after running a religious fraud to fleece his own flock.

Valere Smith, of Borough Avenue, Wallingford, is estimated to have tricked his followers into handing over £224,000 over a three-year period.

The 49-year-old even told one follower: “God told me to tell you to pay money into my HSBC account.”

Isleworth Crown Court heard Smith claimed this was for his own “cult style” group God Kingdom1.

Smith pretended to be a wealthy and successful businessman and promised the victims returns of up to eight per cent on their cash – but most ended up broke.

Prosecutor Tyrone Silcott said: “He no doubt thought he was once a good shepherd but he did then end up fleecing his own flock.”

One victim lost almost £100,000 to the fraudster after she let him take control of her life. Smith met Bernice Sanchez in a shop in Kilburn and told her he could help with her weight, arthritis and also, later, with her daughter's back problems.

He claimed to be a wealthy man who planned to build a church and showed her a plush hotel in Beaufort Gardens, Knightsbridge, which he told her he owned.

Mrs Sanchez handed him tens of thousands of pounds over a lengthy period of months and later had to sell her house after her savings dried up.

Smith even moved in to her home for three months and used it to conduct church meetings and eventually took over the running of every aspect of her life.

She told the court: “I thought he was a holy man of God.” But later added: “Looking over it now, I must have been really stupid.”

He wanted 12 disciples each to take ownership of two per cent of the church and would ingratiate himself with his victims, nurturing their faith in his teachings between 2007 and 2009.

He is then said to have told them to open a HSBC account and instructed them to pay money into his account. Many of his six victims got into debt to do so.

Smith invested some of the money on funding his own life, including on a flat in London.

Judge Georgina Kent said: “I'm sure that you were only able to commit these offences because you deliberately used the unusually high influence that your position of trust as their spiritual and religious leader gave you in order to exploit the victims.”

Smith denied fraud, but was found guilty of six counts and sentenced to five years in prison.