Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
AIA

Nadir fraud case goes to Old Bailey

by
27th Aug 2010
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

After 17 years in exile, former multimillionaire businessman Asil Nadir returned to the UK this week to face fraud charges relating to the collapse of his Polly Peck business empire in 1990.

Nadir, who was originally due to stand trial in 1993, was accused of 66 counts of fraud involving more than £34 million allegedly stolen from the company.

This week he secured a deal with UK courts to pay £250,000 in bail, which will allow him to remain in the UK while he awaits trial. Nadir will appear at the Old Bailey on 3 September, but his trial will not take place until 2012 because of the complex allegations he faces.

His bail conditions include surrendering his passport, wearing an electronic tagging device, reporting to a police station once a week, and being prohibited from going near any airport.

A bankruptcy petition was lodged against Nadir in 1990 by his own stockbrokers demanding payments of £3.6 million. His management company’s officers were raided by the Serious Fraud Office, and the firm ultimately collapsed following a crash in shares.

Nadir was arrested and charged with theft and false accounting, but disappeared to Cyprus whilst on bail.

Stoy Hayward, which was the appointed auditor of Polly Peck at the time, was fined £75,000 after the firm’s collapse for auditing failures.

Before his arrival in the UK this week, Nadir told Radio 4’s Today programme: "I'm hoping to get a fair trial, if this matter goes to trial, obviously," he said.

He claimed he had already "proved my innocence to the authorities without doubt but nobody took any notice at that time".

 

Tags:

Replies (1)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By abelljms
01st Sep 2010 18:26

One law for the rich and one for the peasants?

 

 

 

So next time I skip bail on say- money-laundering etc., I ring up the filth from N Cyprus, and say I’m only coming back years later if you pre-agree that I can stay out on bail when I return to face the musack despite having already demonstrated to you what an untrustworthy and unsavoury character I am who has absolutely no respect / trust in the operation of the UK legal system. And of course the only reason I am willing to come back now is that I have made bundles whilst hiding beyond the reach of UK Police, and will apply this to an army of (uk) lawyers to get me off with at worst a bit of a fine. Oh and I don’t care that this farrago will cost the UK tax-payer literally millions for what?

 

What muppet agreed for this man to return? We merely had to say “you come back to jail or not at all” – cost about £40 for the couriered letter via Turkey.

Thanks (0)