Man held in France over ostrich scam

The ostrich farm attracted a flurry of investment

A south Wales man alleged to have been behind an £850,000 scam involving ostriches has been arrested by police in France.

Last year, Martin Evans, 39, was charged with stealing nearly £300,000 from people who had invested in his ostrich farm in Dunvant, near Swansea.

Mr Evans did not turn up at Swansea Crown Court

When he failed to turn up at Swansea Crown Court in March 2000, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In his absence, his wife was found guilty of fraudulent trading and four charges of theft at Swansea Crown Court.

But mother-of-three Esther Marie Evans, 36, escaped prison when she was given a two-year suspended sentence.

Mr Evans has now been remanded in custody in France pending extradition proceedings.

Profit promises

During Mrs Evans' trial, the jury heard that investors poured money into the Ostrich Centre Ltd after Mr and Mrs Evans promised them 70% profit per year.

The court heard the couple pocketed almost £330,000 in cash and promptly declared the business insolvent.

Prosecutor Christopher Llewellyn Jones told the jury how the BSE crisis in the mid 1990s led to the idea for a "massive fraud".

Ostriches and ostrich meat were put forward as an alternative to beef and lamb.

The couple set up the Ostrich Breeding Company - which later became the Ostrich Centre Ltd - and then placed advertisements in national newspapers under the slogan of an Ostrich Nest Egg.

Between February and July, 1996, 115 investors sent the couple £852,370.

Declared insolvent

The prosecution claimed they spent about £350,000 buying ostriches, chicks and eggs and a further £64,000 on land at Bevexe Fawr Farm in Dunvant.

But the business was declared insolvent on 29 July 1996.

The couple had withdrawn between £300,000 and £400,000 and then "laundered" it through various accounts, including one in the Bahamas, before finally removing the money in cash.

Evans told the court that although she was a director and company secretary of the business, she knew nothing of what was going on and only did what her husband told her to do.

But, Mr Llewellyn Jones told the jury, Evans was a director and the company secretary and had responsibilities towards the investors.