Dublin-based financial adviser faces fraud charge

A Dublin-based independent financial adviser appeared at a special sitting of the Magistrates' Court in Derry on Saturday morning on a financial fraud charge.

Drew Folland, formerly of Petrie Way in Derry and who once had an office in Clarendon Street in Derry, currently lives at 71 The Birches, Riverdale, Sandyford Road in Dublin. The 36-year- old father of three was arrested by members of the PSNI's fraud investigations unit on Friday night.

Mr Folland denies obtaining by deception from Christopher and Mary Lynch just over £230,000 stg (€337,417) with intent to permanently deprive them of the money.

The offence is alleged to have taken place between August 2001 and June 2002.

A detective told the court that the money represented the proceeds of a sale of land and of an insurance policy, both belonging to the alleged injured parties, which he claimed the defendant then invested in his struggling business.

The defendant was remanded in custody after he was unable to meet the bail conditions imposed by resident magistrate Liam McNally. They were for two independent cash sureties each of £50,000 plus the defendant's own bail of £5,000. The defendant will appear before the same court today.

During the hearing the court was told that the PSNI opposed bail for the defendant because police officers believed he would not turn up for future court hearings and because he had left Northern Ireland shortly after the allegation was put to him by the police.

The defendant, who has no previous criminal record, left Derry last October.

A police witness told the magistrate that after the defendant went to Dublin, police officers searched his former home and office in Derry. The witness said that the defendant was arrested close to a fast food outlet in the Waterside area of the city last night when he travelled to Derry to visit his three children.

The witness said that the police believed the defendant's business was "on the brink of insolvency", at the time of the alleged offence.

"He had huge personal debts which were coming to a close. Under the pressure of this complaint, he left the jurisdiction and went to Dublin," the police officer added.

"The defendant works as an independent financial adviser. Two people came to him with £150,000 from the sale of land. During the course of this they cashed in a Scottish Widows policy valued at £82,000 on the defendant's advice and put it in a bonus investment, which the defendant then put into his struggling business," he said.