Fraud body drops case against property multi-millionaire

Published on 21 May 2010 under category: legal

The Serious Fraud Office has dropped its case against a man accused of perpetrating a multimillion pound housing market fraud.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has dropped its case against a man accused of perpetrating a multimillion-pound fraud.

Simon Morris will no longer be facing charges, the Times reported today (May 21st).

The property magnate, who was formerly a director of Leeds United, was not convicted because there was insufficient evidence.

His investment company SRM Holdings, was subject to investigation by the SFO and West Yorkshire Police after his £70 million property empire collapsed in 2008.

In a Panorama documentary aired in February that year, his company Morris Properties was accused of registering prices with the Land Registry as having much higher values than they actually cost.

This can artificially raise house prices in an area.

He was arrested the following October, the day after SRM Holdings went bust.

In a press statement, Mr Morris said: "I have always maintained my innocence and my life has been made extremely difficult by this investigation and the manner in which it has been conducted.
"My career, my business and my personal life have been devastated by the last three years."
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