Mark Atherton of St Ives Cambridgeshire was sentenced to one year's imprisonment today at Ipswich Crown Court for his part in a large scale boiler room fraud being prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office.
Mr Atherton set up a company called The Osborn Group Ltd which traded as The Crowd Went Wild. The intention was that the company would sell signed photographs of sportsmen and women via the internet. Amongst the stock of the Crowd Went Wild were signed photographs of Ben Ainslie and 1980s Norwich City footballer Jeremy Goss. Mr Atherton allowed boiler rooms to sell nearly £1m of shares in his company. He retained 10% of the money to develop the business the remaining 90% was paid to the offshore salesmen in the boiler rooms who sold the shares. The Osborn Group Ltd went into liquidation and investors lost all their money.
Mr Atherton pleaded guilty to a single count of Fraudulent Trading at an earlier hearing. In addition to the term of imprisonment he was disqualified from being a company director for 5 years. A confiscation hearing was adjourned to a later date to be fixed.
This case forms part of a larger operation being conducted by the SFO targeting boiler room activity. To date three men including Mr Atherton have pleaded guilty to offences of Fraudulent Trading. A further six men are on court bail awaiting trial for offences of conspiracy to defraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering. In addition there are ongoing investigations into the sale of shares in a bio diesel production company with a decision as to charge expected in the coming months.
