A former Suffolk farmer accused of defrauding a string of creditors out of “hundreds of thousands of pounds” by buying goods and services he knew he couldn’t pay for allegedly owed £3,000 to an Essex business, a court has heard.

Wayne Parker hired W. Martin & Sons from Braintree in December 2019 to do some work in relation to cattle and to provide three large wheelie bins for animal waste, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

In a statement read to the court, the business’s transport manager said the total bill was £3,200 plus VAT and when it wasn’t paid the company discovered Parker had been made bankrupt in 2019.

The court heard that Parker stopped answering calls from the company and only replied by text.

The company told Parker that if he didn’t pay up within seven days they would take further action and when the money wasn’t forthcoming W Morgan & Sons forwarded his details to a debt collection agency in March 2020.

Parker, 35, formerly of Suffolk but now of Hazel Grove, Feltham, has denied participating in a fraudulent business with intent to defraud creditors by incurring debts.

It is alleged that he issued cheques for thousands of pounds that bounced on accounts which only contained a few pennies or which were empty, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Nadia Silver, prosecuting for Suffolk Trading Standards, claimed that Parker bought goods on credit and on the goodwill of suppliers and assured them he was a person of good standing who would pay what he owed.

“The prosecution say that when he incurred debts to the trades people who supplied him in good faith he was acting dishonestly and knew that he couldn’t pay his debts and had no intention of paying them and told lies to these people in order to extend credit to him,”said Miss Silver

She said that over a period of two and a half years Parker’s alleged offending had resulted in losses of “hundreds of thousands of pounds” to creditors.

She claimed that Parker had an “established pattern” in the way he conducted the fraud and would frequently make an initial cash payment and then issue cheques that bounced or he would tell the bank to stop the cheques.

The trial continues.