Nicholas Marcou, 49, from Barnet, has been jailed for three and a half years after he used the money to buy two properties worth £700,000 and a series of luxury cars.

Marcou ran commodity supplier Abacus Trading Company Ltd for 20 years and held contracts with supermarkets such as Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and ASDA. 

He used legitimate invoices and contracts from these firms to open lines of credit with Barclays before submitting falsified invoices to obtain more credit and using a HSBC account to repay Barclays enough money to create the appearance that the debts were being serviced.

The fraud only came to light when Marcou accidently tried to pay Barclays with two cheques from Abacus’ sister company which prompted the bank to appoint auditors to investigate. 

When the “fresh air invoices” were discovered the auditors suggested it could leave Barclays with a £4m debt but a police investigation found he had actually cost the bank £8,576,811.

Marcou’s father was pursued by Barclays after acting as a guarantor for the business and had to sell his home in order to pay Barclays.

Alex Grant, Head of Fraud Prevention at Barclays, thanked City of London Police in helping to arrest Marcou. 

“Having discovered payment irregularities we immediately alerted the authorities and have co-operated closely with City of London Police throughout this investigation,” said Alex. 

“We work tirelessly to spot, disrupt and defeat attempted fraudsters, and we welcome the successful conclusion of this case.”

Detective Sergeant Lizzie Roberts, from City of London Police, added that Marcou had succumbed to greed and perpetrated a huge fraud. 

 “Unfortunately for him, the City of London Police are experts at investigating and prosecuting complex fraud, and he has now lost everything and will be spending a significant amount of time behind bars, proving once again that those who commit crimes will be caught – no matter how well they think they have covered their tracks,” concluded Lizzie.