THREE men will be sentenced for defrauding 43 companies of more than £800,000, including a Salisbury auction house, next Tuesday.

Farouk Dougui, 39, from London, and Jabey Alan Bathurst, 23, from Middlesex, were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday following a six-week trial.

Simohamed Rahmoun, 30, pleaded guilty to his part in the conspiracy during the trial and was remanded in custody.

The court heard foreign-based fake credit cards were used to pay for valuable jewellery at a number of high profile auction houses, as well as to buy electrical goods and car parts.

One of the companies affected was Southern Counties Auctioneers in Netherhampton Road, which lost £14,397 to the fraudsters. The offenders used their criminal gains to fund a lifestyle way beyond their means.

Rahmoun was claiming benefits at the time of these offences but had high value cars, such as a Bentley convertible, Audis and Mini Coopers, at his disposal in Morocco and Spain.

A fourth suspect, Barbara Ursula Goossens, 60, from London, was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud.