Two fraudsters who tricked banks into loaning them millions of pounds to buy landmark properties including Lunar House have been jailed.

Achilleas Kallakis, 44, teamed up with Alexander Williams, also 44, to swindle the Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of Scotland between 2003 and 2008.

The pair used forged documents, sham legal letters attesting to their wealth and bogus guarantees from Hong Kong based property developers SHKP, to buy the 16 landmark buildings including the Home Office’s asylum processing centre Lunar House in Wellesley Road, which was bought for £100m.

Also among the 16 landmark buildings were the Daily Telegraph’s headquarters bought for £225m and a 23-storey building in Vauxhall for £75m.

Allied Irish Bank was persuaded to advance money for the properties resulting in loses of £56 million, while Royal Bank of Scotland made a loan on a luxury ferry losing around £5 million.

Last week, following a four month retrial, Kallakis of Chelsea and Williams of Fulham, were jailed for seven and five years respectively.

The pair were found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

Both men were also disqualified from acting as company directors for six years.