A CHESTERFIELD couple have been convicted for their part in a fraud and money-laundering operation worth millions of pounds.
Mark and Karen Bates from Highfield Lane, Chesterfield were convicted along with Anthony Jonathan Gould, Helen Victoria Chapman, John David Hill and Alan Stuart Hill from Sheffield of fraud and high value deceptions in England and Spain.
Mar
k Bates, Karen Bates and Alan Stuart Hill pleaded not guilty to offences of deceptions, money laundering, false accounting and conspiracy to defraud a Sheffield company called PACE Financial Management.
Southwark Crown Court heard that Alan Hill, from Owlthorpe, was the centre of the group of people who obtained and issued false documents for criminal lifestyles. He had access to financial databases allowing him to convince banks to provide mortgages for people with little credit history using false documentation.
He was charged and convicted with 15 offences amounting to just over £3m.
Mark Bates (49) was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy offences totalling £350,000.
His wife, Karen Bates (41) was convicted of false accounting but found not guilty of conspiracy charges.
Alan Hill, Mark Bates and Karen Bates who entered not guilty pleas sat through a six-week trial where the prosecution called a large number of witnesses including accountants and previous clients of both Alan Hill and Mark Bates.
DC Mark Wootton from South Yorkshire Police's Money Laundering Team, who led the investigation, said: "This has been a lengthy and complicated investigation. These people have gained substantial amounts of money by falsifying information allowing them to purchase properties in Spain, France and England."
The six have been ordered to return to court on March 23 to be sentenced by Judge Beddoe.
