A COMPANY director who defrauded clients out of £160,000 has been jailed for more than two years.

At the time, Aubrey Joseph Mulhall was the proprietor and sole director of the Beverley Hills Group, operating from near Malton, which sourced and supplied luxury vehicles, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Among his clients were two companies based in Thailand, run by Richard Wood and two associates, who placed orders with Mulhall.

In 2011 they paid Mulhall £160,000 for four Toyota Land Cruisers which had specific chassis numbers to be delivered to Thailand, and which he falsely claimed he owned and could supply, said Michael Collins, prosecuting.

The vehicles were never delivered.

About the same time Mulhall spent money on a house in the Worcester area.

“It can be inferred by the Crown that some of this money was used in that purchase,” said Mr Collins.

Mr Wood and his two colleagues travelled to the UK on May 9, 2012, looking for Mulhall. They did not see him but spoke to his son. As a result, Mulhall agreed to meet Mr Wood at a solicitor’s office so the money could be repaid.

However, he did not attend “and the money remains unpaid”.

Mr Collins said the matter had since been taken to the High Court in a civil hearing and charging orders were in place on the property involved.

He said Mulhall had one previous conviction – he was jailed for four years in 1993 for 13 dishonesty offences.

Derek Duffy, representing Mulhall, said he had traded legitimately for years and the vehicles involved did exist but he had not bought them at the time.

“The Crown accept it was reckless conduct when he found himself unable to pay for them or replacements.”

He said at the time Mulhall was buying the property and adjoining land in Worcester for a housing development and if that was able to continue the complainants would receive their money back when the charge on the property was enforced.

If jailed, he would not be able to continue mortgage payments, the house concerned would be repossessed and the development would be in doubt. He suggested the sentence be deferred or suspended.

Mulhall, 48, who at the time was living in Ferry Lane, Bishopthorpe, York, admitted four charges of fraud and was jailed for two years and three months.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told him a jail sentence was inevitable: “What you did was reckless, what you did was thoroughly dishonest. You took deposit for vehicles that you in fact never supplied. That company suffered the loss of £160,000.

“It appears some or all of that money was used by you to invest in property in Worcester, now the subject of civil proceedings. I want to make it clear these are criminal proceedings; what happens in the civil proceedings happens.”

He said Mulhall’s situation was aggravated by his previous conviction.