MARBELLA CLUB

The biggest ever British fraud trial begins today when Turkish-Cypriot tycoon Asil Nadir stands up at the Old Bailey to face £34million theft charges. He is accused of 13 counts of theft dating back to the 1980s from Polly Peck, his failed business empire that folded in 1990 under the weight of its £1.3billion debt. When he joined Polly Peck in the early 1980s it was an ailing textiles firm which he transformed into a FTSE 100 conglomerate that housed the Del Monte fruit business and the Sansui electronics firm. On trial: The SFO alleges that Nadir transferred millions out of Polly Peck in the years preceding its collapse Following the collapse he jumped a £3million bail and fled in 1993 to Cyprus, which has no extraditions treaty with the UK, but returned in August 2010 stating he wanted to clear his name. Nadir has argued in the past that there was a grave abuse of process in the case brought against him by the Serious Fraud Office. For years he has alleged that the police and the SFO placed the judge in his case under improper pressure, made false allegations of corruption against him and his advisers and seized documents necessary for his defence. The 70-year old has pleaded not guilty to the 13 charges, which include theft of £33.1million and £2.5million from the company between 1987 and 1990. Under Nadir’s leadership the firm’s market value ballooned from £300,000 to £1.7billion, and an investment of £1,000 from the late 1970s would have been worth £1million at its peak. The SFO alleges that Nadir transferred millions out of Polly Peck in the years preceding its collapse. Its demise hit pension funds and small shareholders. The case is due to last at least four months. Nadir’s fall embarrassed John Major’s Conservative government after it emerged that a Tory minister, Michael Mates, had given Nadir a watch engraved ‘Don’t let the buggers get you down’. Mates, the minister of state for Northern Ireland, resigned over his links to the businessman. Nadir was a major donor to the Tories, pouring more than £1million into party coffers between 1986 and 1990. He was a regular guest in Mrs Thatcher’s Downing Street, and was consulted on overseas development and Middle Eastern trade.