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Aughton conman in £4m fraud scam
AN AUGHTON man who posed as a 'millionaire businessman' has been convicted of a £4m fraud scam which crippled three companies and resulted in 46 people losing their jobs.
Robert Anthony Green, 42, of West Lane, posed as the wealthy backer along with 'business representatives' Saleem Akhtar Kiani, Christopher Brian Fox and William Gerald Lane.
All four admitted their involvement in the collapse of the three firms at Sheffield Crown Court last week.
They were involved in asset stripping operations at Uno Shopfitting Ltd, Wavetown Ltd and Abbotts Wholesale (Tobacconists and Confectioners) Ltd, between October 2001 and October 2002.
Companies were acquired by the men, who claimed Green was a millionaire businessman. In fact, he had no money and each firm was systematically raided.
Detectives from South Yorkshire Police, who worked with the Serious Fraud Office, discovered the men used the companies' own funds to borrow money against the value of the business, claiming millionaire backers would pay it back.
But, in reality, they had no intention of repaying the loans.
The money was used to fund extravagant lifestyles, and in the case of Kiani and Fox, it paid for holidays, cars, mortgage repayments and school fees.
More than 4m of company assets were dissipated in the fraud to buy the three firms and a further 832,000 was removed from the companies.
The total loss to creditors was 3,265,000.
Green was given a nine-month suspended sentence, Fox, 46, was jailed for 16 months and Lane, 66, was jailed for 12 months - all three were disqualified from being company directors.
Kiani, 47, from Sheffield, was sent to prison for 21 months and was told he faced a possible serious crime prevention order and disqualification from being a company director .
Were you an employee at Uno Shopfitting, Wavetown or Abbotts Wholesale? Click here to tell us your story.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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