SOUTH Essex College was defrauded out of more than £1.4million – and may never get its money back after a court case collapsed.

The college, which has sites in Grays, Basildon and Southend, was conned out of £1,457,000 when fraudsters intercepted payments to contractors as it built its new Thurrock campus.

Six men and one woman from London were five days through a trial at the Old Bailey, when the judge threw out the case due to “incompetence” by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The agency has launched an inquiry after it emerged evidence had gone missing and hadn’t been investigated properly.

The college has had to take money out of its reserves to meet the costs of its newcampus in Grays town centre,.

Anthony McGarel, the college’s deputy principal and chief executive, said: “We are very disappointed that no recovery of the funds is expected at this stage.

“Although this crime was extremely serious, the college has been able to negate the loss using our financial reserves in 2013-14.

The college reported the crime to the Serious Fraud Office in September 2013.

The case was passed on to the National Crime Agency, which brought a prosecution, but its evidence was riddled with errors.

Judge Wendy Joseph QC said: “One wheel after another has fallen off the prosecution’s train before it has finally rolled to a standstill.”

Payments to building contractors were intercepted and dispersed through hundreds of bank accounts.

Judge Joseph said: “There can be no excuse or justification for the combination of multiple failures that have occurred, or the late stage they have occurred.”

An NCA spokeswoman said: “We do not want any prosecution to fail, particularly if there is anything our own officers can do to prevent that.

“We are determined to understand what happened here and to ensure it cannot happen again.”