AN accountant has been cleared of defrauding two millionaire brothers out of £186,000.

Adrian Lummis was accused of using money from scrap metal company Nationwide Metal Recycling Ltd, based in Ardleigh, to pay his own bills.

Company directors Douglas and James Edwards had claimed Lummis had taken £20,000 to pay for his own solicitor’s conveyancing bill in December 2011.

The prosecution also alleged the 53-year-old, of The Street, Diss, carried out the same crime in March 2012, by taking £41,697.30 to pay his own taxes to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

He also faced a third fraud totalling £125,000 in July, 2012 which was alleged to have been used to pay off his taxes.

But yesterday a jury at Ipswich Crown Court found him not guilty on all counts of fraud by abuse of position.

Accountant Mr Lummis was in charge of the business and personal accounts of the brothers, having worked alongside them at NMR since 2007.

The court had heard although Mr Lummis admitted the money had been taken from the co-directors’ joint bank account, the cash was an interest free loan, which had since been paid back after he inherited money when his estranged wife died.

But in their evidence, the brothers denied any agreement had been made with the accountant, who they had known for about 30 years.

Mr Lummis told the jury he believed the brothers took the case against him because they were angry at him for his incompetence after he failed to file tax returns properly, forcing them to pay off hundreds of thousands of pounds in late payments and fines to HMRC.

During the hearing, the court heard Douglas Edwards had to pay about £400,000 in late payments and fines for tax mistakes by Mr Lummis and the company shelled out another £200,000.

Prior to setting up NMR, the brothers had sold a previous business for £16 million in 2005.

As a thank-you, the pair handed Mr Lummis a ££100,000 bonus.

He was also invited on a family skiing holiday and, at that time, was judged to be a “good friend”.

NMR now has a turnover of about £20million per year.