A Lincolnshire businessman was today (Friday) found guilty of defrauding a Government agency of over £200,000 by submitting false expenses and creating two ‘ghost’ employees.
Andrew Rendell-Read (61), of Weston Hills, had denied two fraud offences but was convicted of both charges after a two-week trial at Lincoln Crown Court.
The jury were directed to find Rendell-Read not guilty of a third charge accusing him of possessing invoices for use in fraud.
The court heard Rendell-Read, of Broadgate, made false expenses claims relating to the Government agency Innovate UK between December 3, 2015 and September 11, 2018.
Jurors decided Rendell-Read also abused his position as a director of VBC Instrument Engineering by transferring funds from business expenses between February 10, 2016 and April 18, 2019.
Prosecutors said Rendell-Read extracted £243,000 from Innovate UK in a joint fraud operated with his wife and business partner, Catherine McGreggor.
The vehicle for the fraud was a Wellingborough based engineering company, VBC Instrument Engineering (VBC), of which the couple were both directors.
Jurors heard the ‘husband and wife’ team defrauded Innovate UK during a funding project related to the automated manufacture of aerospace blades.
As part of the project Innovate UK reimbursed 41 per cent of the costs incurred by VBC, the court heard.
Matthew Moore-Taylor, prosecuting, said the fraud simply operated by VBC inflating the costs of the project in two ways through quarterly submissions.
“The first is false invoices,” Mr Moore-Taylor told the jury. “The second was ghost employees.”
Jurors heard the ‘ghost employees’ were in fact real people in the form of McGreggor’s niece and daughter.
Mr Moore-Taylor said McGreggor’s two relatives did not benefit from the funding received from Innovate UK and were instructed to pay the money into a joint account she shared with her husband.
At the end of the prosecution case Rendell-Read chose not to go into the witness box to give evidence in his defence.
The jury heard Rendell-Read had been assessed by a psychologist and was found to have dyslexia.
But during a series of police interviews Rendell-Read denied he was responsible for making payments or submitting any of the invoices.
“I had no idea this was going on,” Rendell-Read insisted.
The court heard police found a Rolex watch and four cars including a Maserati during a search of Rendell-Read’s home.
Rendell-Read was granted bail and he will be sentenced alongside his wife at Lincoln Crown Court on July 3.
Judge Sjolin-Knight ordered a pre-sentence report on Rendell-Read but warned him that a custodial sentence was likely.
Rendell-Read was also ordered to surrender his passport.
