One of the Norfolk men accused of being involved in an alleged £9m telemarketing fraud has been acquitted after 21 hours of deliberation – although the jury has yet to decide on the verdicts on three others.
The jury of six men and six women found Geoffrey Good, of Aylesbury Close, Norwich, not guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud between August 1 2008 and December 31 2013.
The jury has been given a majority verdict ruling in respect of the remaining defendants, Joe Lloyd, Kevin Thurston, Daniel Pye. They will resume their deliberations today after being sent home for the weekend.
The eight week trial, at Norwich Crown Court, started in the second week of January and has heard from 23 witnesses, including a former employee the Anti-Marketing Group, who resigned after just a single day at the business and alerted Trading Standards.
Giving evidence, Good – a qualified chartered accountant – had claimed he made every effort to make sure there was no mis-selling but his main concern was the finance and administration not Trading Standards matters.
Under cross-examination, he had said: “My job was an administrative one and pulling the package together. I went there purely to be an accountant.”
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