More details about the civil case brought by the liquidators of Arena Television against Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland have been revealed.
According to The Times, Kroll Advisory are suing the banks for £285 million over payments that were processed “without authority”.
The report adds that Kroll has accused Lloyds and its Bank of Scotland of allegedly allowing Arena’s directors to perpetrate a “substantial and wide-ranging fraud” against multiple lenders.
Arena’s owner Richard Yeowart and co-director Robert Hopkinson, are accused of misappropriating “proceeds of asset-backed lending in excess of £1.2 billion with over 55 different lenders”, including Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.
According to court documents, of the 8,196 assets that had loans outstanding against them when Arena collapsed, “only 66 existed”.
Arena Television collapsed at the end of 2021 with debts of £280 million. At the time it employed 63 members of staff principally based at its offices in Redhill.
In February 2022, the Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into the company. So far, no-one has been held to account for the collapse.
