Former HBoS banker among corrupt financiers facing jail over £245m loan scam

Consultant David Mills, 59, used bribes such as designer watches, sex parties and “boys’ jollies” to get former HBoS manager Lynden Scourfield, 54, to green light inappropriate loans to struggling businesses in order to then scoop high consultancy fees on the back of the arrangements.

Many of the businesses subject to the corruptly conceived deals brokered between 2003 and 2007 ended up going bankrupt with some of the owners losing their homes.

Stephen Rowland, of the Crown Prosecution Service fraud division, said: “There’s no way this was a victimless crime. As a result of this crime, real people suffered great hardship.”

Mills and his 51-year-old wife Alison; Michael Bancroft, 73; Mark Dobson, 55; and John Cartwright, 71, were all convicted yesterday at Southwark Crown Court, London, of various roles in the fraud.

Scourfield, who had already pleaded guilty last year, looked after corporate customers experiencing financial difficulties at HBoS’s branch in Reading until 2007, when he resigned.

His wife also played an active role in the scheme.

Mills, who lavished Scourfield with clothes, jewellery, luxury hotels, business-class flights and expensive meals at an oyster bar and a cheesecake restaurant, was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt, four counts of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

His wife too was convicted of conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

The court heard how Mills also treated Scourfield to a Barbados trip and a six-star, all-inclusive cruise on the Mediterranean in the second most expensive accommodation on the ship, the two-bedroom Royal Suite.

The pair also attended several parties with high-end escorts at a flat in west London, where a number of sex acts were carried out.

Bancroft, meanwhile, was convicted of conspiracy to corrupt, three counts of fraudulent trading and one of conspiracy to conceal criminal property. He received £1 million in payments from Mills and the highrisk companies being helped by HBoS.

Cartwright, of Cheshire, was convicted of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

Dobson, of Hertfordshire, was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

Mr Rowland said: “There was a very seedy side to this case and that’s indicative of the kind of mindset and the kind of sleazy elements of these kinds of crimes.”

Scourfield’s accountant, Jonathan Cohen, 57, was acquitted of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.

They will all be sentenced on Thursday.