A former recruiter accused of defrauding the Royal Bank of Scotland asked recruitment business sales consultant John Bissell to put a value on a company that the defendant wanted to sell, a court heard.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Mark Starling asked LBA senior partner Bissell to give IT recruiter Quo Vadis Technology Ltd (QVTL) a valuation so the company could be sold.

Bissell valued the company at £1.5m, but Starling and co-defendant Stephen Lawrence could only command a sale price of £108,000, to be paid in instalments.

The business was sold to Calvin Booth on 30 May 2006, but Starling and Lawrence only received £15,000 each after they were told Booth had gone bankrupt.

Starling told the police in an interview on 17 May 2007: “We thought we had a quick, simple sale. We would sell the business to anyone prepared to pay the right money.”

The court also heard that the pair had lied to police about having a Swiss bank account in earlier interviews.

Starling said: “I didn’t tell you [the police] about the Swiss account in earlier interviews because it was a Swiss account, and also because I was concerned that tax hadn’t been paid.”

The pair, both from the Chelmsford area, deny conspiring to defraud RBS. The trial continues.