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Reaction has been swift to our revelation that South Wales jailbird Howard Williams/James Daniels who had his legs broken when a drugs deal soured, and was exclusively exposed by us has just announced his engagement even though he is still married.
A Facebook post which led to a chain of comments from supporters where he minimises his criminal past and condemns “liars” even though he is one himself, was taken down within hours of The Eye’s disclosure.
In the original post which has now been deleted, he claimed: “… when I was younger I did spend a short while in prison for fraud in the UK”, and added: “Stand up to the liars (and) haters…”.
In fact our journalists have shown that over 10 years his jail sentences have totalled four years four months, involved 25 counts of deception, and he has been made bankrupt three times.
His own father Bill Williams has described Williams/Daniels to us as a “complete crook”. Williams Snr who ran a sofa business in South Wales, believes his son stole about £250,000 from him in cash and stock, and posted on Facebook that he and his wife knew of their son’s past and on occasions did not like him, although always loved him
He said: “… we know his wrongs often we felt he was a little xxxxx but whatever we allways (sic) love him, often we did,nt like him but we always have and always will love him…”. Unusually there was no positive comment to this from his son.
There were also a mysterious burglary and fire at his parents South Wales home and the dates are intriguing.
Williams/Daniels was convicted at Cardiff Magistrates Court of five counts of deception on December 22 2005 and sentenced to four months imprisonment.
On November 21 2006 his parents home was burgled.
This is the truth, but Williams/Daniels has accused us of ‘lying’ in attacking us. The Editor of The Eye Phil Parry as well as his friends, wife and children, have been subjected to a torrent of abuse on social media from Williams/Daniels and his supporters, following our discoveries.
In one tirade he wrote: “You write total lies about people (The Eye – we only report facts), bully to the point of harassment and suicide, and will not answer a direct email? This is not journalism this is a mixture of Phil Parry (The ex journalist) and (others) you are pure scum!!!!! Let it be publicly known that The Eye does NOT care about people it just lies to make fictitious stories up. BULLYING, LIES, MENTAL HEALTH ABUSE TO NAME BUT A FEW!!!!!”.
In another he said: “I am have contacted you (sic) numerous times before asking why you consistently, stalk, bully and harass me? … You so far have asked the following for comments:
Thief
Abuser (The Eye have never said Williams/Daniels is an abuser).
Liar
Sex Offender (The Eye have never said Williams/Daniels is a sex offender).
Drug user (The Eye have never said Williams/Daniels is a drug-user, just that he has dealt in illegal drugs).
Williams/Daniels moved to Murcia in Spain, changed his name, and has been in prison on a variety of charges. Apart from formerly dealing in illegal drugs when he needed hospital treatment after his legs were smashed following the badly-executed illegal deal, he is also a convicted fraudster who has tricked people out of thousands of pounds; some of whom have been left mentally damaged by losing large amounts of money to him.
But as with our other revelations there is mounting consternation that the details have not been covered by the mainstream media in Wales.
In one of his previous ‘careers’ Williams/Daniels has conned people into thinking he is an ‘Estate Agent’ but on one property website, the anger of an individual is clear: “He (Williams/Daniels) makes you pay circa £10k deposit and then disappears into the sunset”. At a property event in the South of England The Eye were told that an investor had lost £30,000 to him.
His extraordinary exploits have even been the subject of our satirical writer Edwin Phillips and Williams/Daniels has boasted of owning a boat as well as a jetski, which he has said on Facebook was for sale.
He has posted a Youtube interview on his property website where he brags about his property ‘expertise’. He claims he had a “massive” estate agency business, but went from earning £20,000 a week to having just £56 in his pocket and living on the streets. Williams/Daniels also alleges he has driven expensive cars, and said in the interview that it took just “24 hours” to turn the £56 into £1,000, yet some critics have questioned how much of this is true.
One who is owed thousands of pounds by Williams/Daniels told The Eye: “This is all made up. He lives in a complete fantasy world!”.
Williams/Daniels has been in charge, too, of marketing for a Spanish wine bar called ‘Blanco’ in Murcia, and he announced his engagement to Danni (or Danielle) Greer on the bar’s website, where the original ‘liar’ post was also published and has now been removed.
But our journalists have divulged how over Christmas and New Year he warned customers on social media that they could no longer accept credit cards at Blanco, even though these periods are the busiest times of year for restaurants and it is almost unheard of for them only to take cash then.
He also ran dance nights at a disco in Spain called ‘Roldan’ but it closed soon after our disclosures.
Following them, Williams/Daniels asked a specialist company how to “get rid” of the “negative” stories about him on the internet. He wrote: “When I google James daniels spain or James Daniels property or James Daniels murcia a load of website links appear for the-eye.wales which are negative reviews and not true (The Eye – nothing is untrue). How do I get rid of these an(d) how much does it cost? Also how long does it take?”.
As well as having his legs broken when an illegal drugs deal soured, we have also disclosed how formerly Williams/Daniels has teamed up with another ex-criminal from South Wales, who had been put behind bars for drug offences, to start a ‘charity’. He launched the ‘Crisis Housing Charity’ and asked for donations from the public in a venture designed ostensibly to help ex-convicts find homes. The ‘charity’ gave an address in Cardiff but does not now exist.
Williams/Daniels is still married to his wife Lisa and divorce proceedings are underway, which raises more questions for his new fiancee. He had himself called them in the Facebook post a “messy divorce”.
Williams/Daniels’ ex-business partner, Sam McManus (also known as ‘Georgeson’), has first-hand knowledge of his lies. He has admitted he too was conned by him and that he was a ‘sick man’. Mr McManus explained to us how he was deceived along with everyone else, and told The Eye: “He (Williams/Daniels) has fooled many people and I can only be grateful that there are good investigative journalists like you guys who expose greedy people like him. It is embarrassing to admit that I am yet another victim of his greed”.
Apart from describing his son as a crook, Williams’/Daniels’ father has told us how he was called by the police to Clifton suspension bridge where Williams/Daniels was threatening to commit suicide, and how he spent part of a Christmas day outside the walls of Cardiff jail to be near his son inside.
Williams/Daniels also said he performed at expensive property ‘seminars’ in upmarket hotels or golf clubs around South Wales where customers were duped once again. For £299 potential clients were tempted with a “Special Offer February Deal – Sourcing and rent to rent training weekend”. The ‘offer’ was removed from Williams/Daniels’ Facebook site, where he was known as ‘The Shoes’, soon afterwards, and when The Eye contacted one of the golf clubs, officials had no record of it taking place.
Last week on a Facebook website alerting people to crime in one area of Spain, a disturbing post was published about Williams/Daniels.
It said: “James Daniels of Blanco restaurant owes his landlady who is chronically ill with cancer €3,000 in unpaid rent and bills … what a conman (who) blatantly drives around in expensive cars. This poorly lady needs an income to live, not the stress caused by this unscrupulous person … Disgusting behaviour”.
Among the many accusations on social media from Williams/Daniels to the family of Mr Parry, is that we are pursuing a person with, as he puts it, “severe mental healthillness” and cases of this are well known to our Editor.
Yet it is others who deserve sympathy.
The real victims are those whose lives have been ruined by his drug-dealing and the innocent people who have been tricked out of thousands of pounds, as well as, perhaps, Ms Greer.
Maybe her employers at Digby Brown solicitors in Glasgow have also reacted now.
Tomorrow our political columnist The Rebel examines the crisis engulfing the UK now.
Our Editor Mr Parry’s memories of his extraordinary 35-year award-winning career in journalism as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major new book ‘A Good Story’. Order the book now. The picture doubles as a cut-and-paste poster!
