No fraud trial for RBS chiefs who put f irms out of business

THE Crown Office has ruled there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Royal Bank of Scotland officials for fraud over claims they destroyed small businesses.

Yesterday’s announcement comes after a police evidence-gathering operation lasting more than a year.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) lawyers stopped short of closing the file, saying they would reconsider their judgment should fresh information emerge.

But victims claimed ‘the Establishment is closing ranks’ and threatened to take the decision to judicial review.

The Scottish Daily Mail previously revealed that COPFS’s specialist financial crime unit had ordered Police Scotland to collate evidence from a sample of businessmen who claim their companies were crushed by RBS, most of them by the bank’s notorious Global Restructuring Group (GRG).

They were looking for a pattern of systematic fraudulent behaviour that might provide enough corroboration for a prosecution to succeed in Scots law. Now the Crown Office has decided that there is not enough material to take the allegations further.

A spokesman confirmed this, adding: ‘Should additional evidence come to light that decision may be reviewed.’

Nigel Henderson, head of the Scottish branch of pressure group SME Alliance, which has been campaigning for legal action against RBS officials, said: ‘Thousands of people across the UK will be enormously disappointed.

‘It is not justice or democracy when the law applies to one group in society but not to all. If someone steals from your bank account, it shouldn’t matter whether they are a thief or a banker.

‘This decision gives every indica- tion that the Establishment is closing ranks behind RBS because of the state’s stake in the bank.’

The case of former hotelier Mr Henderson, who lost millions of pounds, was one of those considleft ered by COPFS. He said: ‘It’s not just the frustration of seeing other countries jailing bankers while ours get off scot-free, it’s the fact a conviction would make it easier for people, many of whom were virtually destitute, to claim compensation for losses.

‘We have a barrister’s opinion in our case that there was fraudulent behaviour and we believe the police have been following the wrong trail of evidence.

‘In so many other cases too, RBS practised premeditated deceit for its own avaricious purposes.’

Another businessman, who wishes to stay anonymous, said: ‘The Crown Office… are saying there’s not enough evidence. They’ve been offered plenty.

‘It seems there’s a two-tier justice system in Scotland: one for bankers, one for the rest of us.

‘There is a suggestion that if the Crown Office’s stance does not change then an individual or a group may take it to the Court of Session for judicial review.’

During the financial crisis, the Government took a controlling interest in RBS in a £45billion bailout plan to save the bank. In return it had to dispense of bad debts and build reserves so the taxpayer could protect its stake, now 73 per cent of RBS shares.

RBS developed a strategy that would end up driving thousands of firms to the wall. Customers’ assets were revalued down and loans and mortgages recalled.

Around 16,000 businesses were pushed into the bank’s GRG, ostensibly a division to help turn around distressed companies. But many had to sell assets or equity to RBS at knockdown prices.

The bank’s executives deny there was a deliberate attempt to fleece customers but have set aside £400million to pay compensation.

An RBS spokesman said: ‘We note and welcome the decision.’

RBS ‘DASH FOR CASH’ SCHEME IS PROBED BY POLICE Daily Mail, Oct 17, 2016