BUSINESS DECEPTION INVOLVED £310,000

From the Guardian Series, first published Friday 7th Aug 1998.

CONGLETON-BORN Ronald Byrom was convicted by a jury on Friday of obtaining £310,000 by deception.

Byrom was found guilty at Knutsford Crown Court of five charges of obtaining the money by deception from investors in Greenworld Ecology.

He was accused of accepting money from businessmen without telling them he was bankrupt, charges he denied.

He admitted three charges of managing a company while bankrupt, obtaining £12,632 from the DSS and opening a bank account by deception, giving a false statement at an insolvency examination and obtaining more than £250 in credit while bankrupt.

Byrom, aged 53, of Holly Walk, Wrexham, will be sentenced on August 28.

The court heard how a compound aimed at turning rubbish into compost attracted hundreds of thousands of pounds of investors' money.

Byrom was made bankrupt in 1994 after a company failed and a scheme to convert a chateau into a country club collapsed.

He saw marketing the compound as a way out of his financial problems, and persuaded investors to put £300,000 into his company.

He was ousted as chairman of Greenworld Ecology and a police investigation was called for when it was discovered he was bankrupt.

Bryon claimed it was part of a dirty tricks campaign to get him out of the company.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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