Alan Wilson, the former director and major shareholder of Blue Cube Rentals, has been sentenced to 44 months imprisonment at Stafford Crown Court this week after pleading guilty to fraud.
Wilson ran Blue Cube Rentals, which designed and rented portable refrigerated units and trailers from its HQ in Staffordshire Technology Park. The firm went into administration in March.
Staffordshire Police says that Wilson took part in fraud, as the sole director of the business, which centralised on falsifying rental agreement documents, misappropriation of company funds and disposal of equipment.
Wilson used the fruad to fund what Staffordshire Police describe as a "luxury lifestyle", including the purchase of a €850,000 villa in Marbella, Spain, a 47-foot yacht worth £490,000 and a Mercedes-Benz car.
Following an investigation by Staffordshire Police's Economic Crime Unit Wilson was arrested and pleaded guilty to theft, false accounting and fraud.
Detective Sergeant Nick Jones, from the Economic Crime Unit, says: "We are increasingly using asset recovery to take back ill-gotten gains, which are then paid as compensation to victims.
"These are often other commercial institutions, which may be struggling in the difficult economic climate and rely on recovered funds to continue to trade and employ staff."
On 26 March 2009 Blue Cube Rentals appointed KPMG as administrator. According to the administrator's report, filed on 15 October, KPMG said they were unable to rescue the company as a going concern due to its "poor financial and operational position".
Turner & Co (Glasgow) bought Blue Cube's portable cold store division for a total of £100,000 on 23 June, but despite approaching 35 interested parties no buyer was found for its trailer division which ceased trading on 19 May.
KPMG says that the total claims of unsecured creditors total £1.5m, but it is unable to estimate how much will be realised.