A former church trustee and magistrate pleaded guilty to fraud yesterday, after scamming his friends out of millions of pounds, the Telegraph reports.

Patrick Coppeard, 49, convinced numerous friends at St John's Church in Buckhurst Hill, Essex that he would help them with their investment "as a favour".

Some of the 61 victims lost up to £250,000, according to Essex Police's Serious Economic Crime Unit, with the total loss involved totalling £3.2million.

Coppeard, who used to work at investment bank Merrill Lynch, could now face a "substantial" time in prison, after he is sentenced later this month.

Having carried out the fraud between 2008 and 2013, Coppeard confessed to Rev Dr John Stanley, rector of St John's Church, in May 2013, and together they went to the police.

Rob Smith, a close friend and neighbour whom Coppeard defrauded, told the Telegraph: "The day before [Coppeard] turned himself in to the police, he told me had been lying to me for five years and he had lost all my money."

"I think the reason he handed himself in was that so many people were asking for money at the same time," Smith said. "I don't think it was out of remorse, more [the feeling that] 'I've got no place to go, I can't keep this going any longer'."