Fish farm director in Scottish fraud trial

A director of the largest salmon farm company in the State, Gaelic Seafoods, is at the centre of a multi-million-pound fraud trial in Scotland.

Mr Stuart Baillie (39), listed as a director of the Connemara and Cork/Kerry-based company in the Companies Registration Office in Dublin, is accused, along with his father, Mr Malcolm Baillie (72), of being behind a series of bogus leasing schemes involving heavy plant and equipment used in the construction and fish farming industry between May, 1988, and October, 1991.

The alleged fraud involves a total of over £12.8 million sterling (£14 million).

The Baillies deny all five charges and, in a special defence, blame another businessman.

The case, which is being heard in the High Court in Edinburgh, is expected to last at least three months.

It is alleged that the Baillies used their directorships of Inverness-based Marine Structures Ltd, Lees Group (Scotland) Ltd and a series of other subsidiary companies to defraud leasing companies. They are accused of creating false business records and backing their bids for lease finance with false details. Leasing companies received title for plant and equipment in return for finance arrangements. They allegedly later discovered that the details on which the finance arrangements were made were false.

Mr Stuart Baillie stepped aside as managing director of Gaelic Seafoods, which employs more than 150 people, in January, 1997, pending the resolution of the court case. Part of the company's assets were formed from the purchase of three fish farms for about £4 million from the ESB in 1995. The company's Scottish assets were sold to a Norwegian company, Stolt Seafarms, for about £10 million in November, 1997.