Private Sector

A woman whose crimes cost her employer hundreds of thousands of pounds has been jailed for more than three years, following a police investigation.

Louise Chambers, 41, from Thirsk, worked as finance manager for a group of Knaresborough-based companies from March 2021 to November 2022, when she was dismissed.

The ex-finance chief of Patisserie Valerie has been charged with fraud after the bakery chain collapsed in one of the biggest accounting scandals to rock the UK High Street in recent years.

Christopher Marsh and his wife Louise have both been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, four years after the cafe company tumbled into administration.

A car dealer from Omagh has been found guilty at Newry Crown Court of advertising and selling 'clocked' cars including reducing the mileage of a VW Scirocco by 52,000 miles.

The Trading Standards Service brought the case against Samuel McConnell, director of SMC Cars & Commercials, and Ryan McKittrick, a sales executive of the same company.

https://www.am-online.com/news/car-dealer-sales-executive-plead-guilty-in-systematic-clocking-scam

A FORMER director of a haulage firm has been jailed after a “brazen” fraud involving billing a client for police escorts, some of which never happened.

James Campbell, 51, a director of West of Scotland Heavy Haulage Limited, overcharged a Spanish company by £110,000 for the transportation of wind turbine parts by tampering with invoices from the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and South Wales Police

A fraudulent builder who left work not completed or to a poor standard and built one of the worst extensions that a surveyor had ever seen, has been found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison.

https://westbridgfordwire.com/fraudulent-builder-who-built-the-worst-extension-ever-seen-sentenced-at-nottingham-crown-court/

A fraudster who conned elderly and vulnerable residents out of £1.5m for renewable energy and home safety products has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment alongside a 10-year directorship ban.

https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/eastmidlands/news/2086749-fraudster-jailed-for-1.5m-renewable-energy-scam

Richard Furlong considers the liability of company directors for criminal wrongdoing by their employees.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 expanded corporate liability by widening the identification doctrine from the old “directing mind and will”test to a new “senior manager”test. My colleague Vanessa Reid wrote a very helpful article on these changes in December, available here.

THE investigation into alleged fraud at Initiative Property Management has changed hands from Dorset Police.

South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) has now taken over the extensive probe into the Branksome business park business.

An accountant has been jailed for using her company's money on holiday as part of a £20,000 fraud spree.

Lynsay Railton, 45, of Boyatt Crescent, was working at Fairpay Construction Ltd when she conned the business out of almost £20,000.

FIVE men have been charged with running a window company in Bradford “for fraudulent purposes.”

The men, who are all linked to Just Glaze Windows and Doors, have appeared at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court – each charged with “Carrying on business of a company with intent to defraud creditors / for other fraudulent purpose.”