Lecturer cleared of fraud charge

Nerys Fuller-Love lectures at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth

A lecturer in entrepreneurism at the university in Aberystwyth has been cleared of a charge of assisting her husband to run a business fraudulently.

Nerys Fuller-Love, 48, was allowed to leave the dock after Judge Eleri Rees instructed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty on Tuesday.

The case against her husband Donald Fuller-Love, 56 continues. He denies four charges of fraudulently trading.

The prosecution claim he ran successive boat building firms into the ground.

Mr Fuller-Love of Llangwyryfon, Aberystwyth, also denies theft of £135,781 from the European Union.

The court had heard how the couple set up a boat building firm in Borth, mid Wales in 1993. Mrs Fuller-Love was company secretary and her husband was a director of Steel Kit Ltd.

Their firm was involved in designing the first purpose-built passenger boat to cruise Cardiff Bay since the barrage was built.

Successive failures

But the successive failures of Mr Fuller-Love's businesses accrued total debts and allied costs of £1.4m, the prosecution claim.

Prosecutor James Rae told the court it had been "blindingly obvious" the firms should have been wound up before debts got out of hand.

The EU money was a grant to finance research and development but Mr Fuller-Love passed on only a fraction of the money to the research establishments it was intended for, Mr Rae said.

Mrs Fuller-Love, who is the author of a book on accounting in Welsh, had been on trial at Swansea Crown Court for more than three weeks.

At the end of the prosecution case, brought by the Department of Trade and Industry, her legal team argued successfully that there was no case for her to answer.

The case against Mr Fuller-Love continues.