The ex-finance chief of Patisserie Valerie has been charged with fraud after the bakery chain collapsed in one of the biggest accounting scandals to rock the UK High Street in recent years.
Christopher Marsh and his wife Louise have both been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, four years after the cafe company tumbled into administration.
More than 900 jobs were lost when Patisserie Valerie, which was chaired by British entrepreneur Luke Johnson, collapsed in 2019 following the shock discovery of a £94million black hole in its finances.
In total, 71 of the group’s almost 200 stores were closed.
Announcing the charges yesterday, Lisa Osofsky, director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said: ‘Patisserie Valerie’s abrupt collapse rocked our high streets – leaving boarded-up shops, devastating job losses and significant investor losses in its wake.
Accounting scandal: More than 900 jobs were lost when Patisserie Valerie collapsed in 2019 following the shock discovery of a £94m black hole in its finances
Today is a step forward in getting to the bottom of this scandal.’
Pritesh Mistry, former financial controller of the company, and financial consultant Nileshkumar Lad have also been hit with fraud charges.
The SFO, which began its investigation in 2018 after the firm suspended its shares, accused the defendants of overseeing the ‘financial failure’ of the High Street chain.
All four defendants have been charged with conspiring to inflate the cash on the firm’s balance sheet and in its annual reports between 2015 and 2018.
During that time, the company had said it had £28million in its accounts but had hidden £10million worth of debt.
They are also accused of providing false documents to the company’s auditors Grant Thornton.
The Financial Reporting Council fined Grant Thornton £2.3million in 2021 for failing to spot red flags in the company’s accounts and a ‘serious lack of competence’.
Having been worth £450million at the peak of its success, Patisserie Valerie was bought out of administration by Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital Partners for just £5million in 2019.
Lad, Mistry and Marsh have also been charged with five counts of fraud by false representation, and one count of making and supplying articles for use in frauds.
Marsh faces a further charge of making false statements as a company director. All four will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on October 10.
