Margo trial begins
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• Allegations of fraud on a massive scale were made last week when five men including cousins Malcolm and Alan Margo, went on trial at Maidstone Crown Court.
It was said that the defendants are accused of planning to set up a national coaching network without assets or capital. The scheme was said to have collapsed with liabilities of almost 21 million.
Malcolm and Alan Margo and Keith Rose of Hove, Ronald Dalton of Bromley and Edward Dickens of London all deny conspiracy, fraudulent trading and obtaining property by deception.
Michael Gale QC, prosecuting, said the charges resulted from a long series of frauds going back to 1978. It was alleged that vehicles were bought on hire purchase when there was no prospect of the instalments being paid. Vehicles would sometimes be "sold" by one of the defendants' companies to another.
A £70,000 overdraft was obtained from a London bank after the manager was told the defendants were selling Red Car Service of Norwich for £550,000, producing documents to support that claim. In fact they had not owned that company but had been negotiating with the owners for the lease. Unknown to the bank the dealings between the Margos and Red Car Services ended in a history of mis-management, debt, and a company that was bled dry. It was a familiar pattern in the case of the defendants becoming involved in family businesses after illness had forced people to give up.
Mary Burns, a former director of Maroner (Coaches) of Glasgow said she had been forced to sell her house and possessions following a deal involving the Margos. When the company was sold to the Margos she and her husband resigned as directors, but their resignations were never registered with Companies House and in 1981 they discovered that they were still directors. They remained so until the company was dissolved in 1982.
In 1981 they discovered that Maroner Coaches had bought a yard in Beith, near Glasgow. Malcolm Margo telephoned to say he wanted to sell the yard to a company called lanmob and he needed their signatures as they were still directors. It was suggested they would receive £12,000.
Malcolm Margo had told her he was going to raise a loan to pay them, secured by another piece of land he owned. They signed the documents but they never received the £12,000 — all they got from the sale of Maroner Coaches was 2,900.
Under cross-examination Mrs Burns agreed she had run Maroner Coaches since 1975. She agreed she owed money, but said that it was being paid back and that there never had been any county court judgements or pursuit by creditors prior to selling the business to the Margos.
D The trial, which is expected to last for five months, is continuing.