THE inventor of the infamous wooden 'Africar', whose company collapsed owing £1.5 million, has been jailed for 15 months. Anthony Howarth, 58, pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to fraudulent trading and five specimen fraud offences related to the Lancaster-based company. Jailing Howarth, Judge David Marshall Evans QC said: "This is a very sad case. You are a man with qualities and abilities I greatly admire. A man of considerable experience and achievements.

"You were a man who started up honestly and were seduced into dishonesty by your inability to face the fact that your project had, at least at that stage, failed."

In 1986 Howarth set up Africar International with the intention of manufacturing his wooden, all-terrain vehicle. Lancaster City Council provided him with factory accommodation at Lansil Industrial Estate on Caton Road.

The council also gave him loans totalling £85,000, guaranteed a further £35,000 from Africar International's bankers and handed over £8,500 for an Africar. Despite owing £325,000 to previous bankers in Somerset, Howarth obtained a £60,000 overdraft and set up a scheme to encourage investors. Although the promised delivery dates were repeatedly postponed, Howarth threw a Christmas party and the first Africar was unveiled.

But customers couldn't touch. Had they done so they would have discovered that the car was just a plywood shell with no engine, transmission, gearbox or braking system.

Prosecuting in last week's case, Mr John Rodgers QC said: "Apart from one prototype, no finished vehicles were manufactured. Investors, customers and creditors who had supplied goods and services lost their money."

Potential customers lost a total of £100,000. A public issue floatation, intended to raise up to £25 million, had to be abandoned and Howarth couldn't afford to develop an engine.

He disappeared in the summer of 1988 after the Fraud Squad began investigations.

Mr Peter Rook QC, defending, said that Howarth had been devastated when the company collapsed and had gone to America with his girlfriend. In 1994 he came back and gave himself up.

Mr Rook, who said the inventor had been naive and had relied on financial advisors, added: "Howarth devoted himself to Africar and sacrificed more than he could possibly have gained in his desire to do something useful with his life."

He is now working on a solar-powered catamaran, called Greencat, which his daughter plans to sail around the world.

Mr Rook, also called the managing director of a Dutch publishing company, which has an annual turnover of £200 million, who told the Judge of plans to re-launch the Africar with Howarth's assistance.

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