A rogue trader who conned four victims out of £630,000 has been convicted – and could now be stripped of cash.
Barry Mackland was a legitimate trader of farming machinery and vehicles from his base in Aberdeen until his business dealings got into difficulty in 2022.
The 50-year-old then put into motion a slapdash system of taking money from Peter to pay Paul in a bid to keep debtors from the door – until his luck finally ran out.
Dozens of people, the majority of whom are based in the north-east, claimed Mackland, of Rosehill Drive, Aberdeen, duped them out of cash and so they reported allegations to police.
Those people making the allegations were from farming communities in Aberdeenshire as well as Angus, Dumfries, Cumbria, Lincolnshire and even Denmark.
Eleven of those allegations made it to court, with claims that Mackland defrauded them out of a total of £4.3 million.
However, after a trial, Mackland was cleared of seven charges.
Fraudster duped four victims
But the jury found him guilty of four frauds, totalling £630,000.
After the trial, we spoke to scores of north-east traders who told us that Mackland’s crimes were a “massive wake-up call”.
The scammer’s actions led the region’s farmers and their suppliers to overhaul how they do business.
Mackland’s offending began in February 2022 when he was negotiating to buy two tractors from a Forfar-based firm named Barctrac Ltd.
The fraudster told victim Steven Barclay, of Barctrac, that he would pay for the vehicles – but instead went to the firm’s yard at night and took them without paying.
That left Barctrac bosses baffled and enraged.
They said that, when Mackland contacted them later, he assured them he would pay for the vehicles.
Took tractors – then sold them
But he never did – instead, he sold them to someone else without Barctrac’s consent.
As a result of this fraud, Barctrac was deprived of £83,100 – the value of the vehicles.
Aa all that was going on, between February and May 2022, Mackland was duping other businesses out of funds elsewhere.
Mackland had been a legitimate customer of another Forfar-based firm, Gammie’s Groundcare, for about four years.
Up until the spring of 2022, he had bought machinery from the company and there had been no problems, but then everything changed.
In March 2022, Mackland went to Gammie’s base in Station Yard, Carseview Road, and gave them two cheques to pay for machinery.
Two bounced cheques
In the days that followed, Gammie’s staff went to the bank to cash the cheques – but they bounced.
According to Gammie’s boss Leslie Gammie, Mackland told them he was having cashflow problems, but the issue would be resolved within days.
Mr Gammie added: “He gave us more cheques to cash but after you’ve been to the bank and failed with two, you’re not going to try more. He was stringing us along.”
In all, Mackland’s fraud deprived Gammie’s out of £179,295.
And during the same period, Mackland was scamming yet another victim – this time Stonehaven-based machinery firm DM Forklifts.
More bounced cheques
The firm’s boss, Derek Meston, had agreed to sell Mackland some machinery, and he provided it in exchange for cheques.
But when Mr Meston tried to cash the cheques, they bounced.
In reality, Mackland did not have enough funds in his account to honour the cheques – and he knew that when he took away Mr Meston’s goods.
Of all four victims, Mr Meston was hit hardest.
He suffered a loss of £320,400.
By summer 2022, Mackland had committed so much fraud that word had started to spread among the north-east farming community that he was not a man to be trusted.
It was at that point the scammer turned his attentions further afield.
His next – and final – target was a trader based in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Sold someone else’s machine
In June 2022, Mackland asked Hannah Setchfield, of RC Setchfield Ltd, if she wanted to buy a JCB Telehandler.
But the vehicle didn’t belong to him, so he had no right to sell it.
Ms Setchfield paid £52,200 for the JCB.
Police got involved in summer 2022 and, due to the complexity of the case and the number of allegations against Mackland, it took three years to reach court.
A trial began at the High Court in Edinburgh last week.
Mackland denied wrongdoing.
‘Accused could not pay debt’
His lawyer, David Moggach KC, claimed he sustained debts that he could not pay.
Mr Moggach added: “Fraud does not extend to a simple failure to pay your debts.”
Nevertheless, a jury found Mackland guilty of four charges of fraud and the Judge, Lord Harrower, deferred sentence until August 14.
Prosecutors are now set to launch an action against Mackland under the Proceeds of Crime Act in a bid to recover his ill-gotten gains.
That will mean a forensic accountant will pore over Mackland’s finances and, if they find funds linked to his crime, it can be recovered.
‘Fraud erodes trust’
However, such funds usually go towards the court’s costs rather than to the victims.
Lord Harrower told him: “These are very serious charges.
“According to my calculations, you have caused businesses to sustain losses of £630,000.
“Fraud strikes at and erodes the basis of trust upon which all business depends upon.”
After the hearing, we tried to speak to the four victims.
Steven Barclay did not wish to comment.
Derek Meston said he would reserve comment until Mackland is sentenced.
Hannah Setchfield was uncontactable as her company now operates under a different name, which did not respond to our contact.
‘He wasn’t a flash guy’
Leslie Gammie told us: “It’s a strange one because we did three or four years of legitimate trade with Mackland before all this happened.
“I would say overall we made a profit from him, but equally, there’s a lot you can do with almost £180,000, so it was frustrating to lose that.
“We’re in a fortunate position that we were able to absorb that loss though many others wouldn’t have been able to.
“Mackland isn’t a flash guy. I never got the impression he was spending all this money on flash cars or fancy holidays.
“He was also wanting the next deal.”