A MASSIVE £3.8 million fraud operation was uncovered after businesses in Canterbury raised the alarm.

Stephen Court, his daughter Nicola Puttick, and David Kemp were jailed for fraud and money-laundering after an complex investigation lasting three years.

A fourth person, Canterbury man Paul Kemp, alleged to be involved in the investigation, was arrested in Marseilles last month.

Paul Kemp, also known as Jean Paul Dalton, is on remand in France accused of money laundering and fraud as part of a gang and forgery. He had also been using the alias Marcus Laine.

The investigation started in 2007 when staff in neighbouring businesses on Wincheap Industrial Estate, Canterbury became suspicious of two men buying items to build a kitchen.

After speaking to each other the staff realised that different names were being used by the pair to buy the goods, and they contacted police.

Court and David Kemp used false identities to set up sham companies and businesses and to set up fraudulent bank accounts to receive stolen money.

Puttick was an office worker employed by her father.

In total about 200 fraudulent bank accounts were set up where forged driving licences, invoices, bank statements, national insurance numbers were used, along with fake addresses and fraudulently-obtained passports.

Court was jailed for five years and banned from acting as a company director for 12 years.

Puttick was jailed for 18 months and David Kemp was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

A European arrest warrant had been issued for Paul Kemp, 45, but it is not clear if he was arrested on that warrant. Kent Police are liaising with French authorities.