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£5m fraud gang cost 46 people their jobs
FOUR men have been jailed for a £5m fraud which crippled three companies and resulted in 46 people losing their jobs.
Saleem Akhtar Kiani, Christopher Brian Fox, Robert Anthony Green and William Gerald Lane all admitted their involvement in the collapse of the three firms at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday.
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.
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 .
Fox, 46, from Hertfordshire, was jailed for 16 months, 42-year-old Green from Sheffield, was given a nine-month suspended sentence and Lane, 66, from North Yorkshire, was jailed for 12 months.
All three were disqualified from being company directors.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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