Star blames jailed banker for financial collapse

MARK DOBSON, right, was part of a cabal of corrupt bankers and consultants connected to HBOS’s branch in Reading, Berkshire.

He is also the man that Noel Edmonds blames for destroying his business empire, in a separate case.

Dobson and five others were jailed in February for a total of nearly 50 years for what the judge described as ‘an utterly corrupt’ £245m fraud that left hundreds of small business owners ‘cheated, defeated and penniless’. Many of them also lost their homes.

Dobson worked for Lynden Scourfield, a senior HBOS banker who gave inappropriate loans to businesses, which allowed his associate, business consultant David Mills, to make huge profits from high consultancy fees at the expense of small businesses the bank was supposed to help. Mills’s consultancy loaded its victims with unmanageable debt before taking them over and stripping them of their assets. Scourfield was rewarded with bribes of luxury foreign holidays, watches, cash and sex parties, while Mills bought a £2.5m super-yacht on the proceeds of the scam.

Noel Edmonds says his business, Unique Group, collapsed due to the actions of HBOS, in particular Mark Dobson after he took out a business loan with the bank.

Edmonds believes some of his business assets were passed by Dobson to Mills.