THREE former employees of a Warrington company which collapsed under debts of £150m in 2011 have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.
Stephen Dartnell, George Alexander and Kerry Lloyd, formerly of Total Asset Ltd, which traded as Total Asset Finance, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
They were charged following a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the purchase of alleged false and inflated receivables agreements by KBC Lease (UK) Ltd and Barclays Asset Finance, from Total Asset Ltd.
Elfed Thomas and Carl Cumiskey, formerly of Newton-le-Willows-based H2O Networks Ltd, and Simon Mundy, formerly of Belgian banking group KBC, also face the same charge.
Mr Dartnell, Mr Mundy and Ms Lloyd were also charged with conspiracy to give corrupt payments in connection with the same agreements, which were referred by KBC to the SFO in October 2010.
The defendants will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on January 22.
TAL, owned by Daresbury Services Group, went into administration after question marks were raised by KBC over contracts between the firm and Merseyside technology company H2O Networks.
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