The fraud trial for former Patisserie Valerie employees is scheduled to begin on 2 March 2026 and last 13 weeks.
The date was set during a trial preparation hearing at Southwark crown court yesterday (7 November), with spring 2026 being approximately eight years following the accounting crisis that caused the collapse of the bakery chain in early 2019.
A process of evidence disclosure has been planned for next year, with a pre-trial preview scheduled for July 2025.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged four individuals on 10 October in connection with the collapse – former director and CFO Christopher Marsh, accountant Louise Marsh, financial controller Pritesh Mistry, and financial consultant Nileshkumar Lad.
The SFO said it has charged all four defendants with conspiring to inflate the cash in Patisserie Holdings’ balance sheets and annual reports from 2015 to 2018, including the provision of false documentation to the company’s auditors, Grant Thornton.
Christopher Marsh, Mistry, and Lad have each been charged with five counts of fraud by false representation, one count of conspiracy to defraud, and one count of making or supplying documents used for fraud. Louise March has been charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud.
All four suspects have been granted conditional bail and will appear at the same court on 26 April 2024 to enter pleas.
Patisserie Valerie, which ran c200 cafés at its height, suspended trading in October 2018, closing 70 outlets. The chain collapsed in January 2019 with a £94m hole in its accounts.
