BANKRUPT BANKER
Richard Grout, man of many names, jailed for fraud - Investigations: "Crooked Richard Grout, who hid behind six aliases, has been jailed for six years for a string of business frauds, perjury and acting as a director while bankrupt.
The 47-year-old from Milton Keynes was also known as Richard Van Der Grout; Richard de Grout; Richard Winters; Richard Van der Saar and Reuben Bilj.
He ran UIC Limited, Concourse Property Limited, Woburn Property Limited and Equus Arenas Limited which ran up bills with trade creditors and the taxman that were never paid. Grout lied about memberships of trade bodies and purported to make payments by cheque knowing the accounts the cheques would be drawn on were closed.
Huntingdon Crown Court also heard that Grout acted as director even though he was bankrupt and so disqualified from doing so, hiding behind his many different names. To provide proof of identity he went to the effort of changing the names on his passport and driving licence several times.
Stephen Speed, Chief Executive of The Insolvency Service, said: 'Any company or individual who had the misfortune to do 'business' with Mr Grout should be reassured by the sentence he received.
'The Insolvency Service works hard to remove dishonest, reckless and irresponsible people from the business environment and when we find wrong doing the consequences can be serious as Mr Grout has found out, reflecting the importance of the insolvency regime.'"
DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.
