Scrap copper and the promissory note

Richard Clark, Head of the Fraud and Financial Services Unit at Maclay Murray & Spens Solicitors.

The scrap copper was said to have come from Siberia by train. Certainly a photocopied bill of lading was eventually produced together with a copied Mates receipt, suggesting that the scrap copper was loaded in St. Petersburg for delivery at a Scottish port. The fact that the vessel was a geology research vessel did not raise doubts in anyone’s mind until much later. In fact at the end of the day there was no evidence which established that there ever was any copper or that it ever reached Scotland. However, the paperwork involved and the manner in which it was used gives some insight into the increasingly clever ways in which the professional fraudster uses not only the tools of commerce but indeed legal remedies to further both fraud and the laundering of its proceeds.