THE mastermind of a large scale magazine publishing scam - which left hundreds of small companies out of pocket - was today (Monday, December 10) put behind bars for four and a half years

Mark Taylor had “ill gotten gains” of £356,000 over three years from his dodgy dealings which involved using two virtually identical companies - Global Media Corporation Ltd and Paramount Media - to sell advertising space to small businesses all over the country purportedly for emergency service magazines.

The claims made by his staff, often using aggressive bullying tactics, were largely bogus but not all the victims even realised they had been conned. But those who did were very aggrieved and it was their angry complaints that led to police investigations.

52-year-old Taylor, who has since gone back to his trade as a publican, was told by Judge Rachel Smith that his situation was aggravated by his previous convictions particularly involvement in a “cash for crash” scam which also involved two of his employees.

Explaining the background to the case James Rae, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Global Media was incorporated in December 2009 and was wound up in January 2014. Taylor had been disqualified from being a company director in 2002 for 12 years after the High Court wound up a previous enterprise Trinity Promotions Ltd.

He said that “while there has been some legitimate printing on behalf of the English Police Golf Association, sales representatives claims to have been benefiting the Emergency Services have been largely bogus and it is quite clear that the sales figures that were used by the sales representatives were utterly specious.”

Mr Rae said that as part of the fraud from 2012 invoices were being sent to customers who had not agreed to the orders being charged for and in most cases their sense of grievance followed the aggressive tactics employed to try to secure payment.

This leads to a strong inference that the reps were paid on commission which affords an incentive to drive sales at any cost. Mr Taylor was not prepared to talk about his businesses when he was interviewed, he said.

The court heard that Taylor had received a nine month suspended jail sentence in 2015 for his involvement in a “crash for case” scam in which he played “a major role in organising” a crash with a bus in October 2011. He also has earlier convictions dating up to 1991 “all with a common thread of deception running through them,” said Mr Rae.

Taylor, of Hope Farm Road, Ellesmere Port pleaded guilty to two fraud offences, acting as a company director while disqualified from being a director and making a false statutory declaration.

Andrew McInnes, defending said that the the businesses had started legitimately and in 2009 and 2010 he had been making a good living and had a turnover of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“But it was a house built on sand without foundation to see it continue into the future.”

After being approached by a Merseyside police inspector to produce a police golfing magazine, other police forces all over the country got in touch to do magazines for them and while he had increased turnover he also had increased overheads.

“He was in control of a flourishing empire in 2010 - 2011 and it was a successful and legitimate business but the problem was it began to unravel, there were too many mouths to feed and he lost control... and the operation became fraudulent,” said Mr McInnes.

He had been disqualified from being a company director “but accepts responsibility, he was the man at the helm.”

Mr McInnes said he “tried to bale it out when it was obviously failing.”

Alongside him in the dock was his wife, Kelie Taylor, of the same address, who admitted aiding and abetting him act in breach of his disqualification. She was sentenced to a two year community order with 12 months supervision and 175 hours unpaid work.

Mr McInnes said that the couple had been married for 12 years and have a teenage daughter and he has two children from a previous marriage. He spent many years in the licensing trade and has returned to this working as licensee at the Seahorse public house in Great Sutton, Cheshire.

“The local authority agree he is the right person for the job.”

He said that he has had health difficulties and there has been “an element of self-harm” because of the proceedings but he has been maintaining himself and his family including their 15-year-old daughter. Mr McInnes pointed out that it will be his first custodial sentence.

Detective sergeant Joanne Devers, said: “Today’s sentencing shows that the courts do take the issue of fraud very seriously. Some of the people who were taken in by this fraud were small businesses who were just trying to make a living.

“They were contacted out of the blue and asked to take out advertisements to support emergency organisations and these organisations preyed on the fact that most people would be happy to pay to assist the emergency services. They were then given sub-standard examples of work or received no feedback when they asked questions about issues such as circulation figures. Some businesses were also sent invoices for work they hadn’t agreed to.

"Merseyside Police’s Economic Crime team have actively targeted publishing fraudsters over the last four to five years, resulting in a large number of arrests and lengthy convictions. Merseyside Police will continue to target those engaged in this type of crime."