TWO businessmen have gone on trial accused of “cooking the books” of an Oxfordshire firm to the tune of £1.6m.

Christopher Ford, 47, and Edwin Dayan, 57, are accused of putting non-existent revenue through the accounts of Witney-based Torex Retail between March and July 2006.

Both deny charges of conspiracy to defraud, false accounting and misleading an auditor.

Gibson Grenfell, prosecuting, told Oxford Crown Court: “To put it simply, it’s about cooking company books to make it look as if the company in question is making more money than it is. When that happens, the result is a false financial position is shown on the accounts and to the public.”

Mr Grenfell said £756,000 and £900,000 of income was put through the accounts of XN Checkout (XNC), a subsidiary of Torex, which provided tills to the pub and hotel trade.

Dayan, of Christchurch, Dorset, was a director of XNC and Ford, of Olney, Buckinghamshire, was the financial director. Both resigned in April 2006.

XNC had a £2.1m-a-year contract with pub chain Mitchells & Butlers, but in 2000 IBM took over. It retained XNC as a sub-contractor, but cut its fee from £2.1m in 2000 to £1.2m by 2006.

The prosecution claims that shortfall was hidden by phantom payments.

Mr Grenfell said Ford and Dayan colluded with M&B IT director Stewart Walker to put a payment of £756,000 – purportedly from M&B – through XNC’s accounts for 2005. A similar transaction of £900,000 was shown in 2006, but no money changed hands.

Mr Walker now lives in New Zealand and has not been extradited for trial.

The case continues.