Scots scientist charged over ‘enormous’ £7m wind farm fraud scheme 

A Scots scientist has been accused of scamming wind farm investors out of £7.4million.

Dr Paul Dougan, a former renewable energy firm boss and Oxford graduate, has been accused of using investors’ cash to buy up a string of properties across Scotland and the UK in an “enormous” case brought by prosecutors in Northern Ireland.

The 54-year-old, from Glasgow, faces a catalogue of offences alongside an ex business partner.

He is accused of a total of 24 charges, including acquiring criminal property in the form of £7,396,791 of investors’ money.

Derry Magistrates Court heard on Monday that the prosecution was an “enormous case” amounting to more than 5000 pages.
The 25-year-old appeared at Derry Magistrate’s Court accused of animal cruelty
The case called at Derry Magistrate’s Court (Image: Belfast Live)

One of the charges states that Dougan was “knowingly a party to the carrying on of the business of Diamond Global Trading and Investments Ltd for a fraudulent purpose”.

Prosecutors say this involved the “dishonest obtaining of funds raised via two mini-bond sales which misrepresented the companies true capacity and readiness to construct and operate wind turbine sites and provide a return on investment”.

Dougan also faces charges of fraud by false representation and possessing and supplying articles for use in fraud.

He faces a further nine counts of transferring criminal property and seven charges of being an undischarged bankrupt acting as a director.

One of the charges allege Dougan transferred criminal property of more than £1.6million for the development of a block of student flats in Lancashire.

He is further accused of transferring payments of £585,000 and £70,000 for the purchase of a house in Skeldon East Ayrshire and a £500,000 house in Paisley.

The former director is also charged with transferring more than £22,000 for Erskine Church and £285,000 for a property in Glasgow’s west end.

Dougan, who was listed in court papers as now living in Glasgow’s Lambhill area, is understood to be a former Glasgow Caledonian University lecturer.

He has been listed as a Geoscientist on Companies House and previously been linked to around 30 companies – including mining, property and yacht firms.

Dougan is charged alongside former co-director Liam Ward, 57.

Ward, of County Derry, faces 17 of the same charges as Dougan, except for those relating to being an undisclosed bankrupt.

All of the offences are alleged to have been committed between January 2016 and June 2017.

The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland confirmed in December last year that a decision had been made to prosecute the two businessmen on “a range of fraud charges arising from a police investigation into a renewable energy initiative” and both were issued with a summons to return to court.

When the case called this week, a defence barrister for Dougan told the court the case was “a complex matter” and parties needed time to read the 5,500 pages which had been lodged.

Prosecutors agreed to an adjournment and the case will recall later this year.