A BUSINESSMAN who offered to invest in Swindon Town was part of a rogue carbon credits company that has been shut down by the Government’s Insolvency Service.

Gregory Hall spent six weeks on the board of the holding company behind the club between March and May but apparently failed to deliver on promises of investment.

His role in Carvier Ltd, which marketed carbon credits to the public, has come to light after it was wound up following an investigation by the companies watchdog.

Hall was the “acceptable face of the business” according to a case heard at the High Court.

The owner, Barinua Nwikpo, had run an earlier carbon credits firm, Tullett Brown, which was closed after using false claims to pocket £1.5m from investors.

Nwikpo tried to mask his involvement in the new company by using an alias and bringing in Hall as a director last June, according to the judge, Mr Registrar Jones.

Mr Jones described London-based Carvier as “shady” at the hearing last month and said both Hall and Nwikpo had failed to co-operate with the investigation.

The judge said: “Concern arises because Mr Nwikpo sought to hide his involvement in the company by using a Mr Hall as the acceptable face of the company and because he gave an alias used by his brother when signing an agreement on behalf of the company.”

The businessmen did not provide proper records, so there was no way of telling how much investors might have lost. Chris Mayhew, company investigations supervisor at the Insolvency Service, said yesterday: “We will investigate abuses and close down companies if they are found to be operating or about to operate against the public interest.”

Hall was on the board of Seebeck 87 Ltd, Swindon Town’s holding company, and had visited the County Ground twice.

The firm was used by Jed McCrory’s consortium to take over the club. It is believed Hall represented a group of investors which made an official offer.

But this was not taken up by the club when the group’s initial promises failed to materialise.

Swindon Town general manager Steve Murrall said Hall had only had a fleeting involvement with the Robins.

“He didn’t come through with what he said he would do as an investor so he was resigned from the board and we used other routes of funding,” he said.

“He was introduced through credible people and we are surprised at the news of the carbon credits company.

“We did not know him prior to his Seebeck connection and the introduction was based on him investing.”

Hall has a background in carbon credit trading and currently holds directorships at City Project and UCS Trading, among others.

Hall did not respond to requests for comment through his companies yesterday