Trial begins of man accused of £69,000 fraud

Tuesday 12 June 2018

A 56-year-old man accused of fraudulently converting £69,000 from a company where he was a director has appeared in Royal Court for the first day of his trial.

Alaric Karl Coombs is pleading not guilty to one charge.

Crown Advocate Nuno Santos-Costa said that the prosecution case is that Mr Coombs and Richard David Arthur "agreed and arranged to take £69,000 that belonged to a company called Library Place Investments Limited," while acting as directors of that company.

They then paid the £69,000 to a company called Bianco Property Holdings Limited – one of Mr Arthur’s private companies, which was later dissolved on 1 October 2010.

Mr Arthur, whom the Crown Advocate described as a "fraudster of a pretty big scale," was charged with a total of 19 counts and pleaded guilty to a number of them, included the charge of fraudulent conversion he is accused of jointly with Mr Coombs. He will be sentenced on 2 July. Advocate Santos-Costa however stressed that the jury should treat Mr Coombs' trial separately from Mr Arthur's guilty plea.

Advocate Santos-Costa told the jury that Mr Coombs had signed the instruction for the transfer of money from Library Place Investments Limited to Mr Arthur's company. "What possible honest reasons could he have to send the money into a private investment account of Mr Arthur?" he added.

The Court heard that three weeks after the £69,000 transfer, Mr Coombs ended with half of the sum on his account, "because they (Mr Arthur and Coombs) agreed together to steal it and share it." He said Mr Coombs used the money to cover his a £5,000 overdraft and pay off his expenses. Meanwhile, he said Mr Arthur was "overdrawn up to his eyes," with an overdraft of over £600,550.

The alleged fraudulent conversion came to light after the owner of the Library Place company had instructed lawyers to pursue both Mr Arthur and Coombs. At the time, Mr Coombs was planning to leave Jersey and had put his house for sale. When it was eventually sold, he paid off £69,000 to Library Place Investments Limited. "Why would an innocent man pay off everything?" said the Crown Advocate.

David Sowden, a forensic accountant, was tasked with tracing the money, where it had gone, how it had been used and how it had been filtered into other accounts. He was called in as a witness for the prosecution. During cross examination, Advocate Olaf Blakeley, defending Mr Coombs, put to Mr Sowden that he had been wrong in saying his client had "paid the £69,000 back," as he never had the £69,000 from Library Place Investments Limited in the first place. "It would be correct to say £69,000 was paid to Library Place," said Advocate Bakeley. 

Advocate Blakeley also noted that the money paid to Mr Coombs by Bianco was only paid as a result of money from the Singapore Bianco company. "None of the balance from Library Place was used to pay Mr Coombs," he added. 

Mr Arthur was also called as a witness for the prosecution. He explained that he pleaded guilty to the charges against him as he was responsible and took the matters very seriously. He also said he was asked by the police to make clarifications during the trial, but that he was made no promises in exchange of those. 

The trial is expected to last until Friday under the direction of Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith.