Bail for three on slate fraud charges.

THREE former managers of the Welsh Slate company charged with fraud, will be tried later in the year.

At a plea and case management hearing at Mold Crown Court yesterday the trial judge, Merfyn Hughes QC, provisionally fixed the trial at Caernarfon Crown Court on September 1. It is expected to take more than six weeks.

Following a joint investigation by the Serious Fraud Office and North Wales Police, former managing director Christopher John Law, 52, of Betws yn Rhos plus former operations director Geraint Roberts, 57, of Llanberis and former sales director Paul Michael Harvey, 51, of Bexley in Kent, were charged with carrying on the business for fraudulent purposes.

It is alleged that they misrepresented the value of sales between January 2004 and February 2007, to the value of pounds 15million to the then parent company, Alfred McAlpine.

There is no suggestion that it was done for personal gain, but to create the illusion that sales targets had been met from their Gwynedd quarries when it is alleged they were not.

Law is further charged with two counts of forgery and fraud.

The judge yesterday made a series of pre-trial directions and fixed a further plea and case management hearing on March 27.

All three are bailed in the meantime.