The Mayfair office of an alleged £750 million fraudster was described as a badly-run “suitcase job” by a former staff member in a London court yesterday.

Achilleas Kallakis and Alexander Williams ran an office which filed accounts late and was constantly short of cash, the former employee claimed.

Both men, who ran Atlas Management Corporation from a swish central London address, are accused of defrauding AIB out of £740 million in property loans by faking guarantees.

Alexander Goldfarb, who worked as an accounts temp at their Carlos Place offices, gave Southwark Crown Court an insight into how it allegedly operated.

Mr Goldfarb, who worked at the offices between July 2007 and spring 2008, claimed that his signature had been forged on documents and that the company’s cash flow was “very poor.”

He says he was told by Mr Williams to fob-off AIB after it called to enquire about a late loan repayment hours before he was sacked, it was said.

Mr Goldfarb said he had only seen Mr Kallakis once in the time had had worked there but saw Mr Williams several times a week.

He claimed Mr Williams was responsible for “minor admin and decisions”, and that Mr Williams would seek help from Mr Kallakis if the firm experienced cash-flow problems.

Asked by prosecutor Victor Temple QC of his first impression of the system used after starting at Atlas Management, Mr Goldfarb answered: “The system was non-existent.

“There was just a few boxes of documents and random notes ranging from invoices to random receipts. It was kind of a suitcase job.”

Mr Temple then asked Mr Goldfarb if he and his boss Rod Rezler had tried to ‘put things right,’ to which he answered: “Absolutely – accounts were late being filed. The priority task we had was to catch up with accounts prepare them and file them.”

He added: “It was definitely very important. That is why I was drafted in. It looked like Atlas was in danger of being liquidated.”

Mr Goldfarb said he had never heard of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the Hong Kong property firm the men claimed had provided property guarantees.

Asked by Mr Temple about the “cash position of the company at the time”, Mr Goldfarb answered: “It was very poor as it usually was during my time at Atlas.

Mr Temple then asked what happened to rent money received from the properties Atlas ran.

Mr Goldfarb answered: “As soon as our rent had been received – I am speaking from knowledge of what was happening in the office – it was whisked away.”

Asked if he knew where the rent was going, Mr Goldfarb said: “No.”

The ex-employee, who has since qualified as a chartered accountant, also told jurors how he had no dealings with AIB – until he spoke to Mr Williams on his final day at Atlas.

Asked what Williams had allegedly said to him, Mr Goldfarb answered: “About concerns that had been raised about the lack of cash to make the required mortgage repayments.

“Alex Williams asked me to speak to the bank and let them know they would have to wait for a week until the funds came.”

Mr Goldfarb then told jurors how he had went to speak to AIB, only to have them contact him first. Having passed on Williams’ alleged message he was asked to put the comments in an email to AIB, he said.

He then told of how his ‘sincerely upset’ manager Rod Rezler had sacked him between two and three hours later on the alleged orders of Alexander Williams – and told to ‘leave immediately.’

Mr Goldfarb refuted a suggestion by Peter Caldwell, for Williams, that he had not been acting on his boss’ instructions when asking for a delay by AIB.

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

The trial continues.