SERIOUS fraud officers swooped on two Warrington properties as part of a £12million international commerical loans and rent fraud.

They searched a business and residential property in the town last Wednesday in a nationwide operation that targeted 18 properties over suspected advance fee fraud and commercial rent fraud.

Officers were investigating a company operating as Gresham Ltd and Gresham Finance (London) Ltd, which offered commercial loans of up to £250 million and promoted its services through adverts in newspapers, magazines and online.

Applicants, mostly from overseas, applying for loans for commercial projects such as developing resorts and building hotels, were charged between £5,000 and £50,000 for a due diligence check.

Once they had paid their fee there was a next-stage payment that acted as a security deposit set at between one per cent and five per cent of the loan amount.

Officers also raided properties in London, Surrey and Derbyshire in a mixture of commercial and residential properties with help from Cheshire Police officers.

Gresham Finance (London) Ltd has its address listed on Companies House as Touchstone Accountants Ltd on Hawthorne Business Park, Bewsey and Gresham Ltd, which is listed as in liquidation by Companies House, also has the same address.

In October we reported on a recruitment firm’s battle to get £6,700 owed to them from Touchstone Accountants’ sister company Touchstone Accountants and Legal.

The company, which is understood to be headed up by Kerry Katona’s former money man David McHugh had failed to pay up following a court order to do so.

At the time Mr McHugh said that the company disputed the amount owed and the standard of work supplied and were heading back to court to appeal.

But now another company has come forward to say they were left out of pocket by the company and that there are others also launching action against the company.

They say that they paid one branch of the Touchstone company to fight legal cases for them and then nothing happened.

A source said: “The owner of Touchstone, David McHugh has illegally represented himself as being a solicitor to our company and others and having handed Touchstone over thousands of pounds to fight legal cases, they have done nothing as they have no legal status.”

The Warrington Guardian tried to contact David McHugh several times, but no-one was available to take our call at Touchstone’s Bewsey office.

l Three men have appeared at City of London Magistrates’ Court for charges of money laundering, conspiracy to defraud and deception.

Edward Davenport, aged 43, 62-year-old Martin Riley and 54-year-old David Horsfall are next due before Southwark Crown Court on February 2.

Two men and one woman were also arrested and released without charge although one man was bailed until January 12.