Fraud case could cost Alpha millions

Tina Milton

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Alpha Airports Group may have been the victim of fraud by a third party, which the company warned could result in a significant exceptional loss

A case of suspected fraud could cost Alpha Airports Group between £0.7m ($1.2m) and £2.5m ($4.4m) in revenues, the company has admitted.
 
Chief executive Kevin Abbott said: "We're going to court to make a prosecution and needed to warn shareholders about the potential liability. But it will be a one-off transaction and we already have a new third-party provider in attendance."

The news comes ahead of Alpha's preliminary results for the year ended January 31 2006, which will be announced at the end of March. In a pre-close trading statement the company declared that pre-tax profits for the second half would rebound from a depressed first half, when profit declined by 42% to £6.2m ($10.9m) owing to business development and new contract set-up costs.

The business will end the year slightly ahead of last year's £17.4m ($30.6m) pre-tax profit before exceptional items and impairment costs, Alpha said. Group turnover will be over 12% ahead of last year.