An Irish businessman wanted by police in Britain to face fraud charges dating back 25 years plans to challenge a ruling by the Supreme Court to order his extradition, writes Jamie Smythin Brussels.

Robert Stapleton, founder of 4th Millennium Limited, a software company, has appointed a top human rights lawyer and a former president of Amnesty International in Belgium, Eric Gillet, to lodge an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Stapleton, who fled the Republic before the Supreme Court's ruling in July, alleges he would not get a fair trial in Britain. He claims he is the scapegoat for a fraud that was engineered by a division of the British department of trade, the Export Credit Guarantee Department. He also alleges the ECGD regularly helped British firms circumvent EU state aid rules to enable them to compete with EU rivals.

The ECGD, which is now a British state agency, denies the fraud allegations, although it confirms it had to change its procedures in 1983 to become compliant with EU laws on state aid.

Stapleton is wanted by the Lincolnshire police in connection with more than 30 offences involving a fraud perpetrated between 1978 to 1982 related to the collapse of his firm Ultraleisure.

The firm, which marketed fold-away squash courts, collapsed, leaving the ECGD, which had guaranteed loans from Lloyds Bank and Coutts & Co, out of pocket to the tune of €3 million.

According to court documents submitted by British police, the fraud involved company directors drawing up bogus invoices and supporting documents to show that Ultraleisure had exported goods and services to foreign buyers. Lloyds Bank and Coutts then advanced funds to Ultraleisure in the belief that the transactions represented on the documents were genuine. When Ultraleisure had to repay the loan, a larger advance was obtained on similarly false documents and part of that was issued to repay the earlier borrowings. Ultraleisure therefore had to borrow larger sums of money to hide the fraud.

Stapleton's wife was convicted in 1986 in Britain for participation in elements of the fraud and given a suspended sentence.

The firm's finance director Richard Coles was also found guilty of two charges of giving false information to auditors and given a nine-month suspended sentence. But Stapleton was never put on trial because he moved to Spain, which did not have an extradition treaty with Britain at the time.

He later returned to the Republic in 1994 and founded 4th Millennium Limited, which is based in the Turnpike Business Park in Dublin.

The British authorities learnt of his return and issued a European Arrest Warrant in July 2005, enabling the Garda to arrest Stapleton at his home in September 2005.

Stapleton initially won an appeal against his surrender to Britain in the High Court on the grounds that so much time had passed since the alleged fraud that a trial may breach his fundamental rights. But the Supreme Court overturned the decision, ruling he could get a fair trial and that Stapleton's move to Spain caused the delay.

In an interview with The Irish Times Stapleton said he would not return to Britain because he felt he could not receive a fair trial and he expected the Court of Human Rights to strike out the European arrest warrant to enable him to return to the Republic.

"I am not running away, I am not hiding, I am standing and opposing it," says Stapleton, referring to his upcoming appeal at the European court.

"But how can I fight a case when the evidence I want to produce is not available to me? It is held by the police."

He alleges the Lincolnshire police are withholding documents and tapes that could show his innocence and believes that these would be excluded from any trial to prevent his allegations of fraud against a British state agency being uncovered. He also points to the affidavit made to the High Court by a leading police officer in the case that alleged he was associated with the IRA and may be in possession of a firearm.

"This is completely untrue," says Stapleton, who says the police have seized a recording of a conversation between him and his former bank manager at Lloyds, John Taylor, which proves Taylor was about to go public and reveal ECGD's role in the affair. Taylor later took his own life when Ultraleisure collapsed.

Derek Canton, a police investigator in the case, says no tape exists but insists that the 10,000 or so pages of documentary evidence collected during the investigation would be made available to Stapleton's legal team if he returned to face trial in Britain.

"If he has nothing to hide then he should give his version of events in court. But I think that Mr Stapleton is a bit of a 'Walter Mitty' character," says Canton, who now concedes he does not believe Stapleton has any paramilitary connections.

Stapleton alleges the fraudulent scheme to draw up bogus invoices was created by the Export Credit Guarantee Department. But he also alleges the agency was involved in a separate scheme to circumvent EU rules, which prevented states from providing cheap loans to firms trading within the union. He says the ECGD facilitated his company with cheap loans by encouraging him to establish a non-EU subsidiary in Switzerland. "The practice was widespread at the time," says Stapleton, who is also preparing a complaint to the European Court of Justice over the European Commission's failure to investigate.

ECGD spokesman Steve Roberts-Mee acknowledges the agency did offer British firms cheaper loans if they channelled them through non-EU subsidiaries but says the practice was banned in 1983.

He said this practice was not illegal but rather it was a loophole in the EU rules. He vigorously denies the allegations that the Export Credit Guarantee Department was involved in the alleged €3 million fraud involving bogus invoices. "ECGD would not have sanctioned such a procedure that is against the law," Roberts-Mee says.

ECGD is currently evaluating whether it can release an internal audit of the agency carried out in 1986 under the Freedom of Information Act to The Irish Times. It has contacted the police and is trying to contact former staff before it makes a decision.

Stapleton, who is writing a book about his case, says he is confident the Court of Human Rights will rule in his favour. Legal papers are due to be filed within 10 days in the case, which could set a legal precedent for future use of the European Arrest Warrant, by focusing on the amount of time that can lapse without prejudicing a trial.

Only then will Stapleton learn whether a 25-year fraud case is finally over.