Scottish accountant gets 18 months
Sixty-eight year old chartered accountant Kenneth Grant, of Dreghorn, Edinburgh, has started an 18 month sentence at Glasgow's Barlinnie prison after his reckless advise cost investors nearly £500,000.
A Stirling Sheriff Court heard how Grant enticed friends and colleagues to invest money into a Swiss-based petroleum finance firm, which he set up, despite there being no realistic prospects of the money being repaid and without warning investors of the risk.
Grant pled guilty to inducing eight clients to deposit Pounds 443,000 into the company coffers – including Duncan MacGregor, director of Stirling Albion Football Club.
MaGregor, a retired surgeon who lost his life savings in the scheme, has been appointed commissioner in bankruptcy by fellow creditors to wind up Grant’s affairs.
According to reports in the Aberdeen Press & Journal creditors and accountants investigating the affair, put the true sum of money that ‘disappeared’ at Pounds 2m.