Inside the luxury homes of corrupt financiers who preyed on small businesses in £245m loan scam and blew the profits on high end hookers and sex parties
HBOS manager was bribed with designer goods and sex parties
SIX corrupt financiers blew millions on high end hookers, luxury holidays and designer goods after making small businesses bankrupt in a £245million loan scam.
Consultant David Mills, 59, bribed HBOS manager Lynden Scourfield, 54, with designer watches, sex parties and "boys' jollies" in agreement to make inappropriate loans to struggling businesses.
Now Mills and his wife Alison Mills, 51; Michael Bancroft, 73; Mark Dobson, 55 and John Cartwright, 71, were are now facing lengthy jail terms after being convicted of involvement in the fraud between 2003 and 2007 after a four-month trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Mills lavished the banker with clothes, jewellery, luxury hotels, business-class flights and expensive meals.
His wife invited Dobson and the Scourfields to go on trips to Ascot.
Mills, Bancroft, Scourfield and their wives even holidayed together in Barbados to celebrate her 40th birthday.
Mills treated Scourfield to a Cartier watch worth more than £3,000 and a six-star, all-inclusive cruise on the Mediterranean in the second most expensive accommodation on the ship, the two-bedroom Royal Suite.
The pair attended several parties with high-end escorts at a flat in west London, where a number of sex acts were carried out, the court was told.
One woman who worked at Fantasy - a porn magazine company under Scourfield's portfolio - said she was asked to arrange girls for the "posh t*** banker friends".
Many of the businesses went bankrupt as a result of the scam, which allowed Mills and his associates to charge the companies high consultancy fees.
There's no way this was a victimless crime - as a result of this crime, real people suffered great hardship.
Stephen Rowland
A court heard that some of their owners even lost their homes.
Stephen Rowland, of the Crown Prosecution Service fraud division, said: "This had a very real impact on a lot of people, individuals who had worked had to build up companies.
"They found themselves losing their companies and in many cases losing their homes as well as suffering enormous emotional strain and trauma.
"There's no way this was a victimless crime - as a result of this crime, real people suffered great hardship."
Scourfield, who pleaded guilty last year, looked after corporate customers in financial difficulty at HBOS's branch in Reading, until 2007 when he resigned.
Mr Rowland said: "There was a very seedy side to this case and that's indicative of the kind of mindset and the kind of sleazy elements of these kinds of crimes."
Mills was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt, four counts of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
His wife was convicted of conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
Bancroft, who was convicted of conspiracy to corrupt, three counts of fraudulent trading and one of conspiracy to conceal criminal property, received £1 million in payments from Mills and the high-risk companies being helped by HBOS.
Cartwright, from Hyde, Cheshire, was convicted of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property, while Dobson, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
They are all due to be sentenced on Thursday.
Scourfield's accountant, Jonathan Cohen, 57, was acquitted of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368