The trial for the founder of Tasmanian distillery Nant has commenced in Hobart Supreme Court and is expected to run for up to six months.

Keith Batt has been charged with more than 700 criminal offences, including 622 counts of fraud, 66 counts of stealing and 48 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage. He pleaded not guilty to all charges last year.

Nant Distilling went into receivership in 2017, following accusations that more than 700 barrels sold to investors had never been filled with whisky.

The Nant Distilling Barrel Investment Scheme offered investors the opportunity to buy two 225-litre barrels of Nant single malt whisky for $30,000, which would then be bought back by the distillery upon maturation, at 9.5% interest, compounded annually.

However, as part of its due diligence into a deal to purchase Nant in 2017, Australian Whisky Holdings conducted an audit of whisky stock and subsequently alleged the audit discovered “a number of serious anomalies and some minor ones”.

It was alleged that barrels were not filled, some were decanted and not refilled and others were filled with spirit below the industry standard of 63% ABV.

Court documents show one alleged victim purchased 13 barrels at $3667 each, while another alleged victim, using a superannuation fund, purchased two barrels at $15,000 each.

The charges raised in Hobart Supreme Court range from 2007 to 2016 and cover $586,680 in alleged offending. The court documents list 56 alleged victims, comprising individuals, couples, families, companies and superannuation funds.

The prosecution said the trial was estimated to take between three to six months.

A Supreme Court of Tasmania spokesperson said the estimated hearing time was “unusually long” for a criminal trial.

“The only matter of a similar length was the double murder trial of Stephen Roy Standage in 2014, which ran for approximately five months,” they said.