A MAN has appeared before Blackburn magistrates charged with fraud offences relating to a multi-million pound company sale.

Nick McNeil, 64, of Cornwall Road, Rishton, is charged with making a false instrument, namely a guarantee bond, with the intention that John and Helen Evans should accept it as genuine and fraud by falsely representing that the guarantee bond was issued and signed by representatives of Endurance Speciality Holdings Ltd, a Bermuda based provider of property and casualty insurance.

The charges relate to the sale of a company for £4.5million pounds and staged payments were guaranteed by the bond which was allegedly forged in New York.

McNeil, who is alleged to be the agent who brokered the insurance bond was sent on bail to Preston Crown Court.