Towie star Lewis Bloor denies £3m diamond fraud

Lewis Bloor also appeared in Celebrity Big Brother in 2016

The Only Way Is Essex star Lewis Bloor has denied conspiring to defraud investors in an alleged £3m diamond scam.

The 29-year-old appeared alongside six other men at Southwark Crown Court where he pleaded not guilty to dishonestly marketing coloured diamonds for investment purposes.

Four of his co-defendants also denied conspiracy to defraud.

A trial has been set for 1 September next year.

Mr Bloor, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, appeared in the ITV2 show for three years from 2013 as well as Celebrity Big Brother in 2016.

He sat in the dock with his co-defendants Joseph Jordan, 26, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, George Walters, 27, from Beckenham, south-east London, Max Potter, 22, of Enfield, north London, and Nathan Wilson, 25, of Brentwood, Essex, who all also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud.

Simon Akbari, 25, from Loughton, Essex, did not enter a plea to the same charge.

Another co-defendant, 52-year-old Danny Chappell, of Bexleyheath, south-east London, denied a charge of seeking money for completing renovation works which had not been undertaken, which is alleged to have taken place on 31 May 2014.

A hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court last month heard there were 50 victims of the alleged fraud with "in excess" of £3m lost between 17 May 2013 and 19 June 2014.