Alleged fraudster denies baking documents in oven

An alleged fraudster yesterday denied in a London court that he was a “consummate forger” who used an oven to make fake documents look older.

Alexander Williams and Achilleas Kallakis, both 44, are accused of defrauding AIB out of £740 million (€909 million) in property loans obtained using fake guarantees.

Mr Williams yesterday denied he had baked papers in an oven in an attempt to age them, insisting it was merely an attempt to destroy a sensitive fax.

He denied suggestions he had disposed of “large amounts of documents” in this manner. He told Southwark Crown Court he had been planning to destroy potentially sensitive details of a money transfer.

Prosecutor Annabel Darlow also questioned Williams about the multimillion pound surplus said to have been left over from AIB loans after buildings had been bought.

Williams said money made was “invested back into the trust” – a reference to the Hermitage Syndicated Trust, which was liable for the loans and whose beneficiaries were Kallakis’s children.

Ms Darlow asked: “Was this money being spent by Achilleas Kallakis on his lifestyle?”

Williams replied: “No.”

He denied Kallakis was spending £5 million a year on holidays, adding: “He could not spend that amount of money on his lifestyle. He worked very hard but things like the villa in Mykonos, it was trust assets.”

The alleged fraudster also denied suggestions that he had asked a member of staff at his Mayfair offices to destroy a computer server and rejected Ms Darlow’s suggestions that he was “panicked” into doing so.

Williams and Kallakis deny conspiracy to defraud, forgery, fraud by false representation, money laundering and obtaining a money transfer by deception. The trial continues.