Patisserie Valerie: Four deny fraud charges over bakery chain collapse

The former chief financial officer of Patisserie Valerie and three other defendants, including his wife, have denied being part of a plot to commit fraud at the collapsed cafe chain.

 

Christopher Marsh, a former director of Patisserie Holdings (PHP), the company behind Patisserie Valerie, and his wife, accountant Louise Marsh, were charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

 

They appeared in the dock at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Friday alongside Christopher’s former number two, financial controller Pritesh Mistry, and financial consultant Nilesh Lad.

 

The charges relate to the financial failure of the the bakery chain, which had 200 stores when it fell into administration in 2019.

 

Christopher, 49, and Louise, 56, both of St Albans, Hertfordshire, Mistry, 41, of Leicester, and Lad, 51, of Harrow, north-west London, each pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud.

 

The charge states they conspired to “dishonestly” agree to “misstate and inflate” the figures for cash on the group’s balance sheet between October 2015 and October 2018.

 

It is alleged that this put PHP Group’s shareholders and creditors, including banks, at risk.

 

Patisserie Valerie abruptly suspended trading, closing 70 stores with the loss of more than 900 jobs across the country, when its debts were revealed in 2018.

 

On Friday, Christopher also pleaded not guilty to a charge of making false representations as a company director.

 

Christopher, Mistry and Lad also pleaded not guilty to five charges of fraud by false representation and one of making or supplying an article for use in fraud.

 

The trio are accused of making false statements to lenders HSBC and Barclays about the bakery’s cash reserves before it collapsed and the reason that cheques were being stopped.

 

They also allegedly made false statements to auditor Grant Thornton, including issuing certain invoices between 2015 and 2018 that were “untrue or misleading” or were not genuine.

 

In 2022 Grant Thornton, which audited Patisserie Valerie for 12 years, was fined a reported £200m for failing to spot any irregularities in its accounts.

 

All four defendants were released on conditional bail.

 

The trial has been set for March 2 2026.

 

The SFO opened a full investigation into the situation, codenamed Operation Venom, in October 2018.

 

Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital Partners bought the remaining 96 Patisserie Valerie cafes in February 2019 following the collapse of PHP.