An extraordinary tale of deception and ambition is being revisited in a new podcast, "Royal Swindle," detailing the rise and fall of Laila Andre and Evelyn Burton, two Australian fugitives who infiltrated British high society and defrauded numerous individuals, even meeting Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1997, Andre and Burton, then posing as affluent horse enthusiasts, were invited into the royal enclosure at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, where they engaged in a conversation with the Queen. Andre recalled discussing horses and a country estate they were interested in purchasing, with the Queen sharing childhood memories of the property. The pair had arrived in London in the autumn of 1996, establishing themselves at the Berkeley Hotel and instructing estate agents to find a country estate for breeding racehorses.
Burton presented herself as a successful banker who had profited from investments with a U.S. company called Westgate Development Corporation, promising investors returns of up to 25 percent monthly. However, investigators revealed that Westgate was a front and that borrowers who paid upfront fees for loans never received the promised funds. This alleged fraud, alongside a trail of unpaid debts in Australia, had alerted authorities in their native country.
Before their foray into British society, Andre and Burton operated a string of brothels in Melbourne in the early 1980s. Andre also worked as a dominatrix under the name Madame Xaviera, serving a wealthy clientele. Their business ventures also included a stake in a lesbian magazine, a soft-porn franchise, and a finance company called Leveraged Equity Investments International.
Their sophisticated scam began to unravel when the Berkeley Hotel, where they had amassed an unpaid bill reportedly equivalent to around £65,000 in today's money, lost patience. Following a series of stays at various London hotels, the pair moved to Sopwell House in Hertfordshire. Their departure from this hotel was more abrupt; under the guise of a fire alarm, they were refused re-entry, leaving behind a briefcase containing financial documents that aided the fraud squad.
A detective, Jim Frost, who attended the hotel, found the documents suspicious. Upon contacting individuals named within the papers, he discovered a consistent pattern of invested money that yielded no returns. As Frost meticulously built his case, Burton and Andre had already fled the country, eventually traveling to New Zealand.
In Auckland, Andre resumed her work as Madame Xaviera, charging approximately 150 Australian dollars per hour for her services. Meanwhile, Burton, posing again as an investment broker, convinced an acquaintance to hand over a substantial sum. This time, the victim reported the incident to the police, leading to their arrest in February 1999.
By January 2001, both women had been extradited to Britain to face charges. Burton was confronted with 95 counts of fraud and conspiracy, while Andre faced three charges related to cheque fraud. They were remanded to a bail hostel until their hearing at Wood Green Crown Court. Andre pleaded guilty to charges of retaining a wrongful credit and evading liability by deception, a decision she states was made on legal advice due to fear of a harsher sentence.
In court, Burton was sentenced to five years imprisonment for fraud and conspiracy, with the judge noting the losses in court totaled £557,000, though prosecutors suggested the actual figure was higher. Andre received a sentence of three years and eight months. She was released at the end of 2001 and deported to Australia, where Burton joined her two years later after completing her sentence.
Andre continued to care for Burton, who developed dementia in 2010, until her death in 2020. Andre maintains that Burton was not a hardened criminal but someone who often found herself in situations she couldn't escape, insisting that her lover never intended to harm anyone. The "Royal Swindle" podcast was released on July 23.