10-year jail sentence for HBOS scam
A Warwickshire businessman has been jailed for 10 years for his part in a four-year scam that centred on corrupt HBOS staff.
73-year-old Michael Bancroft, from Ilmington, Shipston-on-Stour, was one of six people convicted after a trial at Southwark Crown Court where the scheme which defrauded HBOS of hundreds of millions of pounds was detailed.
He was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt, three counts of fraudulent trading and one of conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
Bancroft, and David Mills, ran a turnaround consultancy, Quayside Corporate Services, which developed a corrupt relationship with two HBOS employees.
The bankers – Lynden Scourfield, ran the HBOS impaired assets division, and manager Mark Dobson – were bribed with cash, holidays and prostitutes.
Scourfield made HBOS’s small business customers to use Quayside Corporate Services, a consultancy run by Mills and his wife Alison, who was also found guilty.
Quayside were described as turnaround consultants but used the arrangement with Scourfield to charge huge fees and gain influence, and sometimes control, of the businesses.
The scam ran from 2003 to 2007 and involved £245m of fraudulent loans.
Scourfield, who was based at HBOS’s Reading branch, was jailed for 11 years and three months. The other four people found guilty received sentences between three-and-a-half and 15 years.
