The Serious Fraud Office has announced that early on Wednesday morning that three men have been arrested on suspected fraud at the training provider Luis Michael Training (LMT).
LMT which was formally based in Newport but has now closed was involved in the enrolment, assessment and verification for apprenticeships and NVQ programmes for young people working in community sport.
The men are suspected of producing false documentation, including registration papers, progress reviews and coaching examination certificates. LMT has been accused of fraudulently overstating the number of students and apprentices that they had placed. It has provisionally been estimated that the total suspected fraudulent claims made by LTM to a number of colleges is in excess of £1.6 million.
- The search operation involved over 70 personnel (i.e. 52 SFO investigators and 20 police officers).
- The case was accepted by the SFO in September 2011 following a referral by Gwent Police who continue on this case as the SFO’s police partner.
