Britain's Serious Fraud Office is to make a formal application to have its case against three former Powerscreen International directors referred to a higher court. The fraud office will ask that the case against Mr Shay McKeown, the former chief executive of the Dungannon, Co Tyrone company, its former finance director Mr Barry Cosgrove, and director Mr Edward Holmes, be transferred to a Crown Court, where it will be heard by a jury, from the magistrates court.
The three men were charged at Stroud Magistrates Court in Gloucestershire in February in connection with an alleged multimillion pound fraud inquiry.
The case against the former Powerscreen chiefs marks the culmination of a three-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the company. It began its inquiry after a £47 million sterling (#75.62 million) black hole emerged in the accounts of one of Powerscreen's English subsidiaries.
The accounting irregularities were discovered at Matbro, a tractor manufacturer based in Gloucestershire.
Powerscreen admitted there were problems at its subsidiary in January 1988, just two months after it had raised £18 million from a new share issue. The group had been one of Northern Ireland's most high profile companies before the accounting irregularities were disclosed.
The subsequent collapse of Powerscreen rocked the Northern Ireland business community and the group's legion of international investors.
The Serious Fraud Office said the charges against Mr McKeown, Mr Cosgrove and Mr Holmes related to its investigations into the accounting irregularities at Matbro.
Mr McKeown has been accused of withholding information, a breach of the Financial Services Act in the United Kingdom, while Mr Cosgrove has been charged with two counts of theft and one breach of the Financial Services Act.
Mr Holmes, who ran the Matbro subsidiary was charged with 25 offences of falsifying the company's sales invoices and of carrying on Matbro's business in Gloucester for a fraudulent purpose between January and December 1997.
All three were granted bail and were due to appear at Stroud Magistrates Court next Monday, but the case has now been adjourned until early June.
