Born-again tech entrepreneur battling back after being cleared of fraud

A tech entrepreneur, who says a four-year battle to clear his name in a major fraud trial cost him his personal fortune of several million pounds and his £50m company, is preparing to bounce back with a new venture.

Elfed Thomas, 57, was acquitted in February at the end of trail in which four other individuals were found guilty of making corrupt payments and conspiracy to commit fraud against lenders Barclays Bank and KBC Lease (UK), in order to obtain nearly £160m.

Thomas’ company H20 Networks, part of his Haydock, Merseyside-based i3 Group, was subjected to a Madoff-type Ponzi scheme – a fraudulent investment operation where the operator generates returns for older investors through revenue paid by new investors, rather than from legitimate business activities or profit of financial trading – losing his entire personal fortune and plunging into debt.

H20 was one of 10 companies used by Stephen Dartnell and his co-conspirators to fraudulently obtain more than £250m – with H20 being the biggest victim with losses amounting to more than £146m.

Dartnell and George Alexander had conspired to create, sign and sell falsely inflated or entirely false contracts from H20 to Barclays and KBC. Simon Mundy was paid more than £900,000 as an “inside man” at the Belgian bank KBC to approve the funding.

Now proven innocent of any wrongdoing following exoneration on the recommendation of the presiding judge, Thomas believes he has “unfinished business” in the UK telecoms market and has set his sights on boosting broadband speeds with a new Manchester-based venture – details of which he intends to announce at the start of 2018.

“It’s been an extremely traumatic time for me and my family,” Thomas told TheBusinessDesk. “My company was snatched from me within a few months. It was a fraud from outside the business and we weren’t the only company they did it to.

“The last six years of my life have not been funny. But the new venture is going to be interesting.

“I’ve seen an opportunity to disrupt the marketplace. The UK is currently languishing in 31st place in the world broadband connectivity tables and 43rd in 4G penetration.

“The impending exit from Europe, in whatever guise, will require the UK to be in the top 10 for broadband capacity.

“If you look at our target market for trade outside of Europe, only 50% of those counties have significantly higher broadband speed and capacity.

“Currently, only 3% of the UK has ‘pure fibre’ – we need a more coherent approach that combines fibre and wireless technology.

“A starting point would be to ensure that all new builds have pure fibre connectivity providing a bedrock for future generations, and allowing consumers the choice of ‘pure fibre’ providers to their homes.”