Page 168 - Articles Written by JGJ EF DPS

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Diagram 4

Unwin had acquired the uncut gemstone in 2006 as part of a land deal
involving his Tamar Group Ltd and was then included in the Tamar
accounts as an asset valued at £300,000. It had earlier been sold to
Trevor Michael Hart Jones, a South African businessman, for £13,000 in
2002.

However, when it was transferred to the assets of Wrekin in December

2007 it was given the £11m price tag, based on a valuation of four
months earlier, purportedly issued by the Instituto Gemmologico Italiano,
giving the impression that Wrekin Construction had a financial surplus of
£6.3m while in reality it was insolvent.

However, the Instituto Gemmologico, Italy said it had never valued such
a gem and moreover, on the 31st August 2007 when it was claimed it

had done so, it was on holiday and was closed. Furthermore, a
laboratory manager said that the institute does not assign values to
gems, but only analyses their quality.