Helen Kelsall and Elisha Kaur were instructed to represent Mr S in relation to allegations of fraud by false representation to a value, the Crown suggested, in excess of £2.5m.

In 2012, in the course of a very short period, a fuel company trading since the 19th century was subjected to a series of fraudulent transactions that left it with a deficit of over 1 million from which it was unable to recover and the company was forced to go into liquidation with loss of nearly 100 jobs.

Mr S became a customer of the fuel company when he acquired a service station. One of the ways in which the company sought to protect themselves in the fuel trade was a contractual requirement that customers who wished to trade on credit had to secure and provide a Letter of Guarantee from their bank confirming that any default would be covered. In this way they should always have been able to secure payment. In fact, what came to pass was that they were taken in by the provision of a succession of forged Letters of Guarantee ostensibly provided by a worldwide renown bank.

In the preparation of the fraud, Mr S opened bank accounts for five service stations, before his co-defendant withdrew the funds and fled the country.

Following lengthy discussions with Prosecution, Mr S pleaded guilty to two of nine counts pertaining to offences of Fraud. Mr S was then capable of applying for any custodial sentence to be suspended. This was successful and no ancillary order was imposed for Confiscation proceedings.