Fraudster and two sons who swindled National Trust out of £1m jailed

A building surveyor who swindled more than £1 million from the National Trust has been jailed.

Roger Bryant, 73, submitted and authorised nearly 150 fake invoices for work never carried out, as part of an 'audacious and protracted' scam.

Mr Bryant, who was employed by the conservation charity, channelled the money to two companies linked to his sons, Bristol Crown Court heard.

He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail after being found guilty of 28 offences.

His sons James, 49, and Scott, 38, were also found guilty of two charges in relation to knowing – or at least suspecting – that the money their father generated for their companies came from the proceeds of crime.

James, a farmer, was jailed for four years while Scott, a carpenter, was handed a two year sentence, suspended for 18 months.

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The court heard that Bryant Snr had a £500,000-a-year budget and could authorise payments to contractors of up to £25,000 without further scrutiny.

Between 2008 and 2013, the Trust paid £1,061,096 to JR Contracting, whose bank accounts were controlled by James. 

A further 36 payments totalling £64,209 were made to SB Construction, another company connected to the sons. 

The work was supposedly carried out on the Arlington House estate and other Trust properties in Devon. Meanwhile, Mr Bryant even submitted invoices to the Trust for work done on his own home.

The fraud was uncovered in October 2013 when his firm was identified as the Trust's largest supplier in the area, despite no manager having heard of it. 

Prosecutors said Mr Bryant then 'tried to mislead investigators at every stage, attempting to hide paperwork and even trying to persuade witnesses to lie and say they had seen the work being carried out'.

Benjamin Douglas-Jones KC told the court the two companies to which the money was paid were entirely fictitious, and had been 'merely artifices created for the use in fraud'.

A Proceeds of Crime confiscation hearing will be held to seek compensation for the Trust.

Passing sentence, His Honour Judge Burgess KC described Bryant Snr's criminality as 'audacious and protracted', adding that he had a position of considerable trust within the charity.

But, said the judge, while he claimed to be the fraud's 'author, architect and sole perpetrator', it had succeeded only with his sons' 'complicity and connivance'.