A GARAGE owner and his partner committed a series of frauds, a court heard.

David Soulsby used a “shell” company no longer in operation and a driving licence in the name of one of its former directors to get finance on two cars, a £33,000 Audi and a £25,000 Volkswagen Eos.

He also sold a 4x4 Mitsubishi to a customer of his garage, Consett-based EW Motors, even though it belonged to a finance company and the payments on it had stopped.

His partner, Aimee Felton, of Harrogate, obtained a credit card processing facility for her business, Rapid Recycling Ltd, and tried to use it to process a number of transactions for amounts including £98,00 and £24,500.

She also tried and failed to fraudulently obtain a £79,000 VAT refund for a tyre-shredding machine she falsely claimed the company had bought and admitted fraudulently obtaining a debt “factoring” agreement. Both pleaded guilty and also admitted offences in relation to the possession of and attempted use of counterfeit £20 notes.

Ian West, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said the pair stayed at the Hilton Hotel, in Cobham, Surrey, and tried to pay with counterfeit notes. They were later stopped by police and found with 240 counterfeit £20 notes.

Andrew Stranex, for 36-year-old Soulsby, of Watergate Road, Consett, County Durham, said he was unable to cope after his father died, leaving him to take over the business.

Denise Breen-Lawton, for 25-year-old Felton, of Willow Grove, Harrogate, said her offending was unsophisticated.

Judge Peter Bowers jailed Soulsby for two years and gave Felton a 21-month sentence, suspended for two years. He ordered her to do 200 hours unpaid work and made her subject to a six-month night-time curfew. Soulsby was disqualified from holding a directorship for 12 years and Felton eight years.