A City trader conned a global oil company out of £1.5m by charging a bogus commissions from a string of haulage deals in Russia, a court has heard.

Evgeny Tikhonov, 36, was accused of stealing about £1.5m over 18 months, which he paid into two Swiss banks, before transferring it to two companies based in a Caribbean tax haven.

Brian Lett, prosecuting, said documents found during a police raid on Mr Tikhonov’s home in Watermill Way, Wimbledon, showed he was planning to buy into an oil terminal and bio-ethanol plant in Riga, Latvia, using money stolen from his employer, oil giant Shell.

On Monday, January 9, Croydon Crown Court was told Mr Tikhonov had worked at Shell as an oil trader since 2004 and had come to a secret arrangement with Russian freight company Sovfracht to overcharge Shell by a tiny percentage for each metric tonne of oil sold.

Mr Lett said frequent shipments of between 50,000 and 100,000 tonnes of oil meant this scam added up to $2,462,000 (£1,589,337.50) over an 18-month period, which he funnelled into two companies based in the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Tikhonov allegedly used an elderly Latvian man, Eric Vanegels, as a nominee director and a figurehead with no real company, while hiding his own role in the companies.

The court also heard how Sovfracht director, Evgeny Nenashev, eventually became suspicious of Mr Tikhonov’s reasons for charging Shell more money and secretly recorded a conversation with him on his mobile phone.

That conversation featured Mr Tikhonov grumbling to Mr Nenashev that he had not received his entire cut from the deal, the jury was told.

Mr Tikhonov denies fraud. The trial continues.

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