A DIRECTOR who turned conman when his new business ran into trouble, has started a 14 month jail term.

Father-of-two, Howard Bird, 24, said to have been the brains behind a fraud in which false invoices totalling at least £20,000 were submitted to another company, gained about £18,000 for his own enterprise, Burnley Crown Court heard. Richard Redgrove, 30, was jailed for two months for helping with information on one bogus £2,600 invoice.

Both men, who are now bankrupt, formerly worked together at 21st Century Television Productions, a company whose name was used for one false invoice.

Bird was disqualified from being a company director for seven years and Redgrove for three.

Bird, of Holker Street, Darwen, pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading, failure to preserve accounts and two counts of furnishing false information. Redgrove, of Draper Avenue, Eccleston, now a lorry driver, admitted furnishing false information.

Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, said the defendants' business, Delta Projects Ltd, trading as the Payroll Co, ran for three weeks in 1997.

False invoices were submitted to County Factors Ltd, enabling the Payroll Co to get money to which it was not entitled. The defendants' business traded as an organisation which calculates pay rolls of its clients, pays the wages and submits invoices for the wages. It did not have any money.

The crown alleged County Factors was "brought on board by deception". Bird put in a business plan containing misleading information and claiming to be a labour agency. Mr Grout-Smith said County Factors put their loss at £41,000, of which nearly £20,000 went into Bird's hands. One of Bird's main clients was his father's firm and an invoice, exaggerated by £7,500, was submitted to County Factors.

Bird sent invoices in respect of three wholly fictitious companies and many invoices were inflated by 10 per cent.

Mr Grout-Smith added Bird told police he had had "cash flow" problems. Bird was the brains behind the scheme, the company's bank account was in his name and he was the only signatory. James Gregory, for Bird, said he was not, either then or now, a flashy man in the way he lived.

Keith Harrison, defending Redgrove, said he believed the Payroll Co was a genuine business and thought he could buy time when told there was a cash flow problem.

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