Gibraltar media reported last week that hundreds of small investors who lost money as a result of fraud committed by Benjamin, Isaac and Solomon Marrache, brothers who had run one of Gibralter’s largest law firms, are unlikely to recover their assets.

The firms’s clients had been defrauded of around £40 million, according to The Gibraltar Chronicle. The newspaper was reporting a statement made by Marrache & Co joint liquidator Adrian Hyde of Chantrey Vellacott CFK.

Last month, on July 4, the Marrache brothers were given lengthy sentences after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the millions of pounds.

The newspaper reported that the fraud victims ranged from a young local man looking to invest in a house for the first time, to an Irish multimillionaire who owns a gaming company, and said: “It appears many of them will not recover their losses.”

The three brothers who ran one of Gibraltar’s largest law firms were jailed on the fraud charges four years after their firm, Marrache & Co, was put into liquidation.

They had been arrested on false accounting charges in May 2010, and the firm was put into liquidation shortly afterwards, the newspaper reported.

A posting by Chantrey Vellacott CFK, a UK accountancy firm and professional business adviser, on their website, stated that the trial — which was adjourned a reported 47 times and saw the jury discharged last year — ended with Marrache & Co managing partner Benjamin Marrache and finance director Solomon Marrache found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud millions of pounds pertaining to clients of the collapsed firm.

It stated that Benjamin Marrache was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment and Solomon Marrache seven years. Isaac Marrache, who was a senior partner at the firm’s London office, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud and jailed for seven years, while a co-defendant, Leanne Turnbull, a former employee, was found not guilty.

Chantrey Vellacott said: “Adrian Hyde, insolvency partner who works out of Chantrey Vellacott’s London office and is joint-liquidator of Marrache & Co, assisted the police and prosecution in the court case over the last four years. He said clients of the collapsed law had been defrauded of around £40 million,” the firm stated.

Mr Hyde’s comments following the trial that were posted on the firm’s website were widely quoted by Gibraltar media. He said: “This has been a massive case for Gibraltar — one of the biggest, and certainly the longest it has ever seen.

“We welcome the conclusion of the trial and sentencing of Benjamin, Solomon and Isaac Marrache. The sentencing sends out a very strong message that any dishonest conduct which affects Gibraltar’s financial community and reputation will not be tolerated.

“The conviction is a testament to the development of Gibraltar into a sophisticated financial business centre with the legal and regulatory infrastructure which that requires.

“As far as the liquidation is concerned the appointment has involved many months of full-time investigation into the affairs of Marrache & Co and its subsidiaries in Gibraltar and London and we continue to attempt to recoup the assets of the company.”

According to local media, the trial was marked by the brothers exchanging barbs in the witness box, and the discharging of the jury with the judge Grigson J announcing he would continue to hear the case alone.

Ms Turnbull’s lead counsel David Evans QC stepped down because of illness and Benjamin Marrache’s counsel, Dorian Lovell-Pank QC, attempted unsuccessfully to recuse himself from the case.