A dishonest wine broker said to have enjoyed a luxury lifestyle by defrauding investors out of more than £430,000 has admitted his guilt partway through his trial.

Harry Mosley, of Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks, had denied two offences of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

But he changed his pleas on the seventh day of the trial and Judge Charles Macdonald QC directed the jury to return guilty verdicts.

He had admitted two other fraud conspiracy charges on “a limited basis”.

The case is continuing with two co-accused, alleged to be his cold-calling team.

Bradley Deadman, 23, of Lodge Road, Tonbridge, and Lewis Hearson, 22, of Dowgate Close, Tonbridge, deny four charges of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

Mosley, 25, was granted bail and will be sentenced at the end of the trial.

Maidstone Crown Court has heard he and others cold-called customers on behalf of his company Optimum Fine Wine and cheated them out of portfolios or large amounts of cash.

They had been promised profit in return for buying, swapping or selling wine through the company.

But the clients, many of whom were elderly, received little or no money from sales of their own wine collections, and wine they bought or swapped never materialised, said prosecutor Dale Sullivan.

Instead, director Mosley “cut and run” and spent the money on high living.

He splashed about £100,000 at bars, restaurants and hotels and bought luxury goods and designer clothes.

Mr Sullivan said Mosley also gambled just over £57,300 on spread betting, took a holiday in Dubai and gave his girlfriend £23,320. He paid himself £112,000 and sold a luxury Bentley car.

Some customers lost entire wine portfolios after they were sold on by the company to wholesalers.

One, aged 84, handed over £205,460 for wine to be purchased and then held in warehouse storage at London City Bond, but none was bought and no money was refunded.

Another who agreed to swap his collection with others through the company transferred more than £56,000 in wine, but only two cases were delivered to his account and he lost just over £49,000.

Fifteen customers were duped by the company between September 2012 and May 2014, losing a total of £436,792. At least two had since died.

Optimum Fine Wine was set up in September 2012 by Mosley helped by a £61,000 loan from his parents.

It was first based in Croydon, Surrey, and then moved to Wellington House in Church Road, Tunbridge Wells.