A WOMAN who launched two American diners in Oxfordshire before vanishing, leaving dozens of people unpaid and furious, has admitted a string of fraud charges spanning almost five years.

Claire Hilsdon, who started the Chariots and Cherry Pie diners in Buckland, near Faringdon, and Grove, near Wantage, six years ago but then had to declare bankruptcy, has now confessed to using a fake name to start new businesses and make deals worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Naomi Perkins, who says she is still owed more than £13,500 for work she did in 2015 for her and eventually had to close her own businesses, said: "It rocked me to my foundations.

"You never would think anything quite so horrendous could ever happen to you. The worst part was realising that there was absolutely nothing I could do about the situation, I just had to accept that I'd been conned and try to deal with the consequences."

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The lies finally caught up with Hilsdon last week though, when she appeared at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Friday, her 45th birthday, and admitted 10 charges, which ranged from May 2015 to January this year.

They all centred around various businesses ran by Hilsdon, of Glebelands, Bampton, offering PR and other services – repeatedly breaking the conditions of her bankruptcy.

Using the name Clara Florey, her maiden name and a nickname, she evaded being linked with her previous actions as she did deals, including one worth more than $174,0000 Singapore dollars, the equivalent of just under £96,500.

Under bankruptcy rules people are banned from obtaining credit worth more than £500 without informing the lender they are bankrupt, acting as director of a company or carrying out business in a different name from the one they were made bankrupt under without letting people know.

Oxford Mail:

Claire and Jonathan Hilsdon outside the Volunteer pub, Grove, in December 2013. Picture: Ed Nix

Hilsdon opened Chariots and Cherry Pie American diner in Buckland with husband Jonathan in June 2014,

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The pair quickly fell into financial difficulties, failing to pay staff, and in December 2014, before a planned second diner at The Volunteer pub in Grove could even open, they liquidated the business.

Hilsdon was declared bankrupt in February 2015. This usually lasts for a year, unless there is evidence its restrictions have been breached.

Almost straight away, she removed £20,000 from a Lloyds TSB bank account, which should have gone to the trustee of her estate to help pay off debts from the American diners.

Oxford Mail:

Screenshot of the What's Ticking Today twitter account

Within months she had also set up and was running What's Ticking Today, an Oxfordshire Groupon-style service to help businesses increase customers with day-limited offers.

These actions form two of the charges she admitted in court last week and her repeated floating of the rules also led to her receiving a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order (BRO) in August 2017 at Oxford County Court.

This extended the conditions of her bankruptcy for eight years and remains until 2025.

Despite the order Hilsdon simply carried out setting up and running businesses, including PR firm Glory Agency, Dispruptive PR and Zora Chain, while using the names Claire/Clara Florey, which avoided her being flagged if clients or staff searched the Government's insolvency register.

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The remaining eight charges stem from these actions, including two over her dealings with Mogu Technologies, a Singapore company which makes internet routers.

In the first, between May 27, 2018 and an unknown date in December 2019, Hilsdon did business with Mogu under Clara Florey, without informing the business she was bankrupt.

The second, that in November 2018, she obtained credit in the sum of $174,065.56 in Singapore dollars from Mogu without telling the company about the BRO.

Oxford Mail:

Claire Hilsdon, under the name Clara Florey, moderating the Cyptofin Conference in October, 2019. Picture screenshot from Youtube

In October last year, Hilsdon, under the name Clara Florey, moderated a panel at the CryptoFin Conference in Estonia, on the topic of 'How to run successful advertising for crypto and blockchain projects'.

She introduces herself as running Dispruptive, 'a PR agency based from London but an international agency'.

There is also video of her at the 2018 AIM (Alternative Investment Management) Summit in Dubai. A title card introduces her as the 'co-founder (and head of Dispruptive London) and she talks about being 'excited' to work with businesses in the region.

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Max Mills, prosecuting on behalf of the Insolvency Service last Friday, said it was a 'complex' case and urged magistrates to send the case to crown court, where sentencing powers are greater.

He said all the offences, if sentenced at crown court, could lead to a two-year prison term.

Mr Mills added there were two sides to her actions, the companies who she worked with without disclosing her bankruptcy or BRO, and those who worked for her and claim they were never paid.

He said that added to that was "the emotional impact that the loss has had on those people involved".

Magistrates agreed and they also ordered a pre-sentence report be carried out to look into any mitigating circumstances before Hilsdon appears at Oxford Crown Court on October 1.