Fibrecity Holdings

Investigation

In the third quarter of 2010, concerns at the financial institution KBC Capital lead to an internal investigation into the circumstances around lending they had made to Fibrecity Holdings' principal funder Total Asset Limited (trading as Total Asset Finance, or TAF). This investigation quickly lead to the bank "..[obtaining] an injunction to freeze assets worth £24m belonging to Total Asset Finance and its sole director, Steve Dartnell..".

Subsequent to the collapse of TAF, Fibrecity builds were immediately ceased in Bournemouth leaving "more than 100 roads in Boscombe, Winton and Moordown [..] partly dug up as a result", and Dundee only shortly after works had started in the Scottish city.

With TAF unable to satisfy KBC that it was able to meet its obligations, KBC petitioned for the company Total Asset Limited to be placed into administration in December 2010. In February 2011, the appointed administrators of Total Asset Limited, Deloitte, published a report on the firm's activities which revealed the existence of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into TAFs financial dealings, stating that the SFO had entered the company's head office on the 17th of November 2010 to secure financial records.

The SFO investigation in Total Asset Finance eventually resulted in a five-month trial which concluded in February 2017 and found that four men had been involved in fraud on a "massive scale" in inflating or inventing contracts upon which lending was secured and saw Stephen Dartnell and George Alexander of Total Asset Finance, Carl Cumiskey of H2O, and Simon Mundy of KBC Lease (UK) Ltd each sentenced to substantial prison terms totalling some 44 years between them in February 2017 for their roles in the fraud amounting to almost £160m.

, and were subsequently also each made the subject of confiscation orders during 2018 totalling some £1.4m.