TRUSTING a friend left two men facing jail for their part in a three-year £65,000 insurance fraud, a court heard.

Gym receptionist Andrew Stephen Winterburn and factory employee Paul Anthony Ward put nearly 90 dodgy cheques through their bank accounts at the request of insurance firm employee Matthew Norman Tute, 24, who split the proceeds with them 50-50.

Tute is currently serving 21 months in jail, but the other two men walked free from York Crown Court yesterday.

Winterburn, 24, of Vicarage Road, Osbaldwick, and Ward, 29, of Melrose Close, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to two charges of deception and asked for similar offences to be taken into consideration. Winterburn was given 180 hours' community punishment and Ward 160 hours. Both must pay £7,500 criminal compensation, and could pay more if the National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society takes civil recovery proceedings.

Tute, of The Green, Acomb, admitted four offences of deception with 85 offences to be taken into consideration before he was jailed in June.

David Cadman, prosecuting, said that between January 2001 and January 2004, Tute used his position in the society to write cheques to settle false claims. Winterburn put 58 cheques totalling £42,489 through his bank account, and Ward put 31 cheques totalling £22,696 through his.

Barristers for both men said they acted out of character, and their employers were standing by them.

Winterburn, Tute's lover, was so attached to him that when they broke up, he tried to kill himself, even though Tute had been violent towards him on one occasion, his barrister Chris Smith said. Winterburn netted £21,000 from the fraud.

For Ward, John Boumphrey said that even before he had been questioned by police, he had apologized to the society. He had become involved to help pay off Tute's debts and since his arrest, had saved up £1,930 towards repaying the society. There was no link between him and Winterburn.

Mr Smith said Winterburn had used the fraud to meet his debts.

Judge Rodney Grant, who jailed Tute, said the others should have joined him behind bars.

Giving several reasons for his "exceptional" decision to let them stay free, he told Winterburn: "You had a relationship with Tute. It is perfectly plain to me from what I have read that Tute was in that relationship the controlling figure and I am told that that control also had at one stage led to the use of violence by him against you."

To Ward, he said: "I am satisfied you were taken advantage of by someone you liked and trusted."

Updated: 09:55 Tuesday, September 14, 2004