Businessman who fled abroad accused of £10m scam admits fraud

Mar 28 2008 by Chloe Griffiths, Liverpool Daily Post

A MERSEYSIDE businessman accused of a £10m scam which led to the collapse of his company has admitted fraudulent trading.

Peter Bradley’s firm Alta Gas went into receivership in 2001, after a £40m hole was discovered in its accounts.

The firm was one of the biggest in the industry and employed 250 people in depots in Knowsley, Prenton, Garston and Bootle.

Liverpool-born Bradley founded Alta Gas in June, 1994, after more than 20 years in the business. He was a shareholder in Liverpool FC and the neighbour of Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish in his former £1.5m home in Birkdale, which backed onto Royal Birkdale golf club.

Following the firm’s collapse, Bradley went on the run, but was eventually arrested in 2006 in Majorca by Spanish serious fraud officers after an international manhunt. And yesterday the declared bankrupt was in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court.

He had been due to stand trial on 36 charges involving at least £10m, including counts of false accounting and fraudulent trading.

Bradley, formerly of Birkdale, but now of Fight Avenue, Lutter-worth, Leicester, had also denied five charges of stealing more than £300,000 from Alta Gas plc. But at the 11th hour the businessman admitted one charge of fraudulent trading between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001.

His plea was accepted by the prosecution and he is now due to be sentenced on April 30.

Also in the dock was the firm’s financial director Peter Stott.

The 41-year-old, of Jumbles Beck, Turton, Bolton, had previously denied 31 charges including fraud-ulent trading and false accounting. But yesterday he admitted six counts of false accounting between April 6, 2001, and October 9, 2001.

The charges relate to more than £2m.

The Recorder of Liver-pool, Judge Henry Globe, QC, told the men he would give them credit for guilty pleas, but warned them all sentencing options were still open to him.

He said: “Quite clearly there has been a lot of money involved in re-lation to these offences and I need to understand fully the effect and importance so that I can under-stand the seriousness of what the sentences should be.”

Accounting problems in his company came to light in 2001, during investigations by a bank approached by Alta Gas for a loan to fund expansion plans. At the time, the firm’s directors were seeking to raise £70m.

Alta’s collapse led to mas-sive losses for several important financial companies, including Barclays bank, which was owed £11.5m.