Accountants guilty of £100m fraud

Alan White, 49, of Edwalton, Nottingham, and Shinder Gangar, 46, of Houghton on the Hill, Leicestershire, had denied conspiracy to defraud.

They were convicted after an eight month trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

The court heard they falsely told victims that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir David Frost were investors.

Both the composer and the broadcaster gave evidence at the trial and told the jury they were not involved and had no knowledge that their names had been used.

Loans to friends

The court heard White and Gangar ran a bogus scheme using new clients' money to fund interest payments to existing customers, meaning there was no underlying trading in investments.

They also used victims' funds to buy property, give unsecured loans to acquaintances and pay into other investment schemes.

The men ran the accountancy firm Dobb White & Co which had offices in Leicester and Nottingham.

They had denied conspiracy to defraud between December 1996 and October 2005 and a charge of conspiracy to commit corruption in 2002.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) estimated that the total fraud involved sums of more than £100m.

Speaking after the hearing, Kwadjo Adjepong, from the SFO, said: "Given that this investigation involved liaison with a number of foreign jurisdictions and the hard work that has gone into bringing this case by the SFO legal team and investigators, and Leicestershire Constabulary's economic crime unit, we are pleased with this result."

Both men were remanded in custody. A date for sentencing has yet to be fixed.

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