Businessman found guilty in £245m HBOS scam

A Warwickshire businessman has been found guilty of being part of a scam defrauded HBOS of hundreds of millions of pounds.

73-year-old Michael Bancroft, from Ilmington, Shipston-on-Stour, was one of six people convicted after a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

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, had already pleaded guilty, but the other five had denied the charges.