Four including ex-Patisserie Valerie chief financial officer deny fraud charges

The former chief financial officer of Patisserie Valerie along with three other defendants, including his wife, have denied being part of a plot to commit fraud at the collapsed cafe chain.

Christopher Marsh, a former director and chief financial officer of Patisserie Holdings (PHP), the company behind Patisserie Valerie, and his wife, accountant Louise Marsh, were charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

They appeared in the dock at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Friday alongside Marsh’s former number two, financial controller Pritesh Mistry, and financial consultant Nilesh Lad.

Christopher Marsh, 49, and Louise Marsh, 56, both of St Albans, Hertfordshire, Mistry, 41, of Leicester, and Lad, 51, of Harrow, north-west London, each pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud.

The charge states they conspired to “dishonestly” agree to “misstate and inflate” the figures for cash on the group’s balance sheet between October 2015 and October 2018.

It is alleged that this put PHP Group’s shareholders and creditors, including banks, at risk.

The charges relate to the financial failure of the the bakery chain, which had 200 stores and tumbled into administration in 2019.

On Friday, Christopher Marsh also pleaded not guilty to a charge of making false representations as a company director.

Christopher Marsh, Mistry and Lad also pleaded not guilty to five charges of fraud by false representation and one of making or supplying an article for use in fraud.

The trio are accused of making false statements to lenders HSBC and Barclays about the bakery’s cash reserves before it collapsed and the reason that cheques were being stopped.

They also allegedly made false statements to auditor Grant Thornton, including issuing certain invoices between 2015 and 2018 that were “untrue or misleading” or were not genuine.

All four defendants were released on conditional bail.

The trial has been set for March 2 2026.

The SFO opened a full investigation into the situation, codenamed Operation Venom, in October 2018.

It came two days after the company abruptly suspended trading, closing 70 stores and causing the loss of more than 900 jobs across the country when its debts were revealed.