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A former director of national bakery chain Patisserie Valerie, alongside three others, faces fraud charges after the business collapsed in 2018.

The French-inspired patisserie chain used to run bakeries in Chichester, Eastbourne, Worthing, St Leonards and Brighton, among other locations all over the UK, before it fell into administration in October 2018.

More than 900 jobs were lost and 70 stores closed as a result and, two days later, the Serious Fraud Office launched a full-scale investigation into the conduct of top brass, codenamed ‘Operation Venom’.

Now, former director and chief financial officer of Patisserie Holdings PLC, Christopher Marsh has been charged with fraud, alongside his wife Louie Marsh, an accountant, financial controller Pritesh Mistry and financial consultant Nileshkumar Lad.

A sign announcing that KPMG have been appointed as the adminstrators is pictured on the door of a closed-down branch of a Patisserie Valerie cafe in London on January 23, 2019. British cafe chain Patisserie Valerie announced on Tuesday that it had fallen into administration, threatening the jobs of almost 3,000 staff at its nearly 200 locations. "Patisserie Holdings plc announces today that...it has been unable to renew its bank facilities, and therefore regrettably the business does not have sufficient funding to meet its liabilities as they fall due," it said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)

All four suspects were charged with conspiring to inflate the cash in the company’s balance sheets and annual reports between 2015 and 2018, sometimes by providing false documentation to the company’s auditors. During this period the company reported holding £28 million in accounts, but concealed £10 million debts from investors and creditors.

Lisa Osofsky, Director of the SFO, said: "Patisserie Valerie’s abrupt collapse rocked our high streets – leaving boarded-up shops, devastating job losses and significant investor losses in its wake. Today is a step forward in getting to the bottom of this scandal.”

The defendants are due to appear at Westminister Magistrates Court on October 10 to hear the charges against them.

In Chichester, the deserted Patisserie Valerie unit, at the back of North Street’s Butter Market, has recently been occupied by Joanna’s Boutique team room, with high praise from customers.

Four people charged with fraud after national bakery chain with branches in Sussex collapses