Three businessmen stand trial for building society fraud

GIBRALTAR (Gibraltar Chronicle) Three local businessmen appeared before the Supreme Court on Monday facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. They also face separate individual charges of false accounting. Liam Kenny, Adrian Oton and Paul Chichon are pleading not guilty to all the charges laid against them. These date back to events in February 2008 and>>>
the prosecution is alleging that each contributed to Kenny’s providing misleading, false or deceptive information to the building society in order to obtain a £270,000 mortgage for a flat in Ocean Breeze, Ocean Village. The prosecutor for the Crown Johann Fernandez told the jury that Kenny had filled in an application form and provided the building society with documentation to the effect that his basic salary as a manager at P&O Homes was set at £80,000 per annum.

Mr Fernandez explained that although the mortgage payments owed by Kenny had been maintained, his actual basic salary was around £24,000 and that banking institutions would have looked at the application differently since they do not rely on overtime and commissions that can “dry up”. Kenny faces charges of false accounting which includes relying on a P7 tax form issued by P&O Homes purporting that his salary was £80,000 producing a letter from P&O Homes with a Spanish contract document which were falsely purporting that Kenny was selling his Costa Golf property and also using Spanish bank documents to misrepresent his position. “Mr Kenny lied with the help of Mr Oton and Mr Chichon,” said the prosecutor.

Oton and Chichon each separately face a false accounting charge for allegedly providing the building society with false or deceptive information for the purpose of obtaining a gain for himself or another. All three defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud.