HSBC money paid for convicted fraudster’s landscaping

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 | By Colin Cottell

Money fraudulently claimed from HSBC by convicted fraudster Timothy Baker was diverted into a bank account controlled by his father, Alan Baker, a court has heard.

Money from the bank account of MRS Stone Contractors, a company of which Alan Baker was a director, was used to make payments to members of the Baker family, Southwark Crown Court was told.

This included £6,000 to Rachael Baker (Timothy Baker’s wife) and £20,000 to a landscaping company for work on a property owned by Timothy and Rachael Baker.

In May 2009, Timothy Baker, of Wolverhampton Road, Walsall was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown court for his involvement in invoice factoring frauds involving HSBC and RBS totalling £700,000. 

On the first day of Alan Baker’s trial, prosecuting counsel John Williams told the court: “The money from that fraud [the HSBC fraud] was received in circumstances such that he [Alan Baker] must have known or suspected that this money was property that came from some crime or other.”

Williams said that money was also paid from the MRS Stone Contractors bank account to Stephen Roberts, of Goldthorn Park, Wolverhampton. In May 2009 Roberts was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud RBS and 10 months for conspiracy to defraud HSBC.

Alan Baker, of Lynbury North, Shropshire, is accused of laundering criminal property between 31 December 2007 and 5 August 2008.  Baker pleaded not guilty to the charge.

In August 2009, Alan Baker was cleared of conspiracy to money launder in a two-week trial at Southwark Crown court. Baker was accused of taking part in an invoice factoring fraud involving two recruitment companies - Lincolnshire-based Allied Staff Management and Revo Recruitment, of West Sussex - for four months in 2008. 

The trial continues.