A CALNE businessman has been charged by the US Department of Justice with involvement in a fraudulent investment scheme involving failed energy giant Enron.

Giles Darby, 40, now managing director of Bohan Engineering Design on the Porte Marsh Industrial Estate in Calne, is one of three British bankers who have been accused of cheating National Westminster Bank out of £4.8 million between November 1999 and August 2000, by United States agents investigating the Enron scandal.

The complaint, filed by the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, alleges that Darby, Gary Mulgrew, 40, and John Bermingham, 39, secretly invested in an Enron front company, Southampton LP, through a series of financial transactions.

Darby worked for Mr Mulgrew at the bank in London. All three left in 2000.

It is claimed that the three former employees of the finance group NatWest, a division of National Westminster Bank, siphoned off $7.3 million, almost £5 million, in income that belonged to their employer.

Enron filed for bankruptcy last December, after a collapse which has led to a series of investigations.

Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said: "As the charges demonstrate, our investigation into the collapse of Enron Corporation is active and on-going."

News of Darby's possible involvement in one of the USA's biggest corporate scandals hit Calne this week.

Production engineer Paul Ludlow, of Robin Butler Engineering, which is also on the estate, said his company had bought products from Bohan but he had never met Darby.

"It is a bit of a shock," he said.

Darby, who has five daughters, left George Ward School in Melksham in 1980 after sixth form. He was described as a popular, intelligent and very able student who liked sport.

He lived in Seend during his school days and worked in London for more than 20 years before returning to Wiltshire. Robert Shore, Bohan's director, was not prepared to comment.