Recruiter Timothy Baker, currently in custody in connection with an alleged £650,000 bank fraud, had links with missing businessman Christopher Foster, Recruiter can reveal.

Baker was, at one point, Foster’s accountant, sources told Recruiter Friday. After a falling out between the two men, Baker was one of two men accused, and subsequently cleared in November 2006, of a £100,000 plot to blackmail Foster. However, Baker was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice in connection with the case. He was given a 12-month suspended sentence and 100 hours of community work, although he later had to serve part of the custodial sentence when he was convicted of falsifying a passport application.

West Mercia police on Friday declined to say whether Baker had been questioned in connection with the disappearance of Foster, his family and a fire that consumed Foster’s home earlier this week.