Peter Benstead: Crown Currency boss killed himself

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-32627891

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The boss of a currency trading company killed himself while on trial with members of his family for a £20m fraud.

Jurors at London's Southwark Crown Court were told of the death of Cornwall-based Crown Currency boss Peter Benstead as they returned their verdicts on the other defendants.

The judge asked jurors not to return verdicts on the 10 counts of which Mr Benstead had been accused.

His widow Susan Benstead was found guilty of money laundering.

On Wednesday verdicts on some of the charges against her and four employees of the firm were delivered.

The court heard 12,500 customers were left out of pocket to the tune of nearly £20m when the firm went under in October 2010.

Verdicts delivered:

Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith said Crown offered customers fiercely competitive offers on foreign currency, but ran into serious financial problems and used new clients' investments to settle existing debts.

The court heard the ailing firm was still accepting payment from customers, even when some staff knew the firm was insolvent, with little chance of clients getting their money back.

Peter Benstead, 72, was found dead in a vehicle near his home in Cornwall on Sunday afternoon, hours after being reported missing.

There was a ban on reporting his apparent suicide until after the final verdicts were returned.

At the end of the trial Judge Michael Gledhill told the jury of Mr Benstead's death in private. Afterwards he said "one or two were quite deeply affected" by the news.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the case was the largest fraud investigation the force had been involved in with "detailed examination" of more than 1,500 documents, 3,000 exhibits, 370 bank accounts and 80 computers, with inquiries spread across the UK, France and Bulgaria.

The defendants are due to be sentenced on 12 June.