A Scots crook living in Spain who forced a new mum’s business to close amid a £700,000 fraud has been locked up.
Stuart Wilson, 40, started apparently legitimate companies as a front to obtain a range of goods, food, drink and electronics.
Wilson used the identities of real people to place them as directors of the firms, which received £865,000 in credit facilities.
Wilson and his gang worked from an industrial unit known as a “boiler room” to defraud a total of 32 different suppliers.
One of Wilson’s victims was heavily pregnant when he made purchases from her candle firm.
She had to fold her business after giving birth when Wilson failed to pay her and ignored her calls.
Wilson, who had latterly been living in Marbella, Spain, was later arrested at Prestwick Airport.
He pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow to a single charge of fraud.
The court heard that an employee and former director of a tissue company contacted police in November 2022.
He stated there were reasons to believe Wilson’s firm, EK Produce, was part of a fraud.
EK Produce had approached the tissue firm about the supply of paper roll and completed an account application form for credit.
After a check of EK Produce on the website “Credit Safe”, the tissue company offered 30 days’ credit of £50,000.
EK Produce went on to place three orders quickly but failed to make any payment.
This resulted in a police investigation over several months.
Prosecutor David McLean KC said: “It was identified that Wilson along with others used ostensibly legitimate companies to obtain credit from suppliers before placing orders with those suppliers up to and sometimes exceeding the amount of credit, obtaining the goods then disappearing before making payment.”
The fraud was deemed to be what is referred to as a “long firm”, where trust and creditworthiness are established over a period of time before large orders are obtained without payment.
Wilson and others used five apparently legitimate firms to carry out the fraud.
These included EK Produce, HLS International, David Kent, Palis Global and Brompton Distributions.
In each case, the details of a real person were used to create the persona of a director and unaudited accounts were lodged with Companies House over a period of time.
Mr McLean added: “This built up a picture of an apparent healthy and credit-worthy business.
“Thereafter, people purporting to represent the companies would contact the suppliers to obtain goods on credit.”
A total of 32 different suppliers were targeted, three of which were victims of more than one of Wilson’s firms.
The businesses targeted ranged from large corporate entities to sole traders.
Products included white goods, electrical appliances, industrial tissue, mineral water as well as food, alcohol and children’s toys.
Mr McLean said: “In this way, Wilson obtained total credit to the value of approximately £865,000.
“The total value of the goods obtained in this way was £723,967.27.”
An investigation found that Wilson operated his companies from a “boiler room” at rented premises in Glasgow’s Hillington.
The delivery addresses for the goods were various locations in the city as well as Motherwell, Paisley, Renfrewshire and Greenock.
Mr McLean stated that Wilson’s role was to co-ordinate orders made to suppliers and give instructions to others.
Wilson was “routinely present” in the boiler room and set up communications such as internet and a phone line there.
The hearing was told that a sole trader who ran Shed Soy Candles was heavily pregnant when dealing with Wilson’s firm.
She provided 700 handmade soy scented candles with a value of £5,121 on a 30-day credit payment term.
After the victim was discharged from hospital after giving birth, she contacted Wilson’s firm but was ignored.
Mr McLean added: “She had to stop her business due to the financial loss.”
It was revealed that Wilson has 11 previous convictions dating back to 2005 when he was jailed for four years for fraud.
Sentence was deferred pending background reports until next month.
Judge Lord Arthurson said: “You have pleaded guilty to an extremely serious charge and custody is inevitable.”
Wilson was remanded in custody meantime.