Accountant found guilty in £3m Ravelle fraud case

Accountant found guilty in £3m Ravelle fraud case

Jeremy Greene found guilty of fraudulent trading at Manchester Crown Court in £3m invoicing scam

A chartered accountant has been convicted of three counts of fraudulent
trading in a £3.25m fraud scandal.

Jeremy Greene, a director of collapsed second hand computer parts supplier
Ravelle was found guilty of playing a key part in an invoicing fraud by a judge
at Manchester Crown Court.

The fraud centred around the creation of false sales documents and a complex
web of inter company transactions which hoodwinked IBM Global Financing and
Barclays Sales Finance into bankrolling Ravelle, using fictitious orders as
collateral.

The case was referred to the SFO by Greater Manchester Police after Ravelle’s
receivers raised serious concerns in 2001.

‘The SFO said: ‘Throughout the fraud Greene performed a finance and
management function for the Ravelle group. He was the individual who had a
sufficient financial overview to enable the complicated transactions required to
keep the fraudulent schemes running.’

According to the SFO, the company used ‘fresh air’ invoicing which involved
fabricating IOUs and pretending these represented real orders.

The company also used ‘circular trading’ which allowed ‘a continuing
systematic deception of the factoring company,’ the SFO said.

The circular trading involved Ravelle pretending it had an order from outside
businesses, which were termed as ‘friendly’ companies. These were Tracktek
Industries Limited, Mad Mac Limited and Cheap Internet Access Limited.

The factoring company was informed of the order and lent money against the
invoice. In due course the factoring company expected the ‘friendly’ company to
pay for the goods it ordered so the loan could be repaid.

If the transactions had been genuine, the funds to repay the loan would have
to come from the relevant ‘friendly’ company, but Ravelle set up an intricate
system which tricked the creditors into believing that the money had come from
the outside businesses.

IBM Global Financing lost £1,600,000 whilst Barclays Sales Finance lost
£654,857. Other creditors lost approximately £1,000,000.

Share

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Resources & Whitepapers

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata
Professional Services

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata

3y

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folde...

In the past decade, the professional services industry has transformed significantly. Digital disruptions, increased competition, and changing market ...

View resource
2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

3y

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professi...

In recent months, professional services firms are facing more pressure than ever to deliver value to clients. Often, clients look at the firms own inf...

View resource
Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine
Accounting Firms

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

3y

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

In a world of instant results and automated workloads, the potential for AP to drive insights and transform results is enormous. But, if you’re still ...

View resource
Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021
Making Tax Digital

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

3y

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

The first phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD) saw the requirement for the digital submission of the VAT Return using compliant software. That’s now behi...

View resource