A BUSINESSMAN who got into financial trouble claimed he had sold his firm to stop a creditor chasing him for money, a court heard.

Paving company owner Andrew Lauder owed Lafarge Aggregates Ltd more than £20,000 when he encountered cash difficulties.

The court heard that the 47-year-old had bought a £140,000 concrete mixer and was unable to keep up his payments in October 2004.

The businessman had an arrangement with Lafarge in which he was supplied with decorative concrete and other materials on credit.

Prosecutor Jenny Haig told Teesside Crown Court that by May 2005, Lauder owed £20,311 and concocted a story to dodge the debt.

A manager from Lafarge, which operates a quarry near Ferryhill, County Durham, tried to recover some of the cash, but Lauder, from Darlington, claimed he was trying to sell his business.

By June of that year, Lauder faxed a fake document purporting to show that the sale of the firm had gone through, the court heard.

Miss Haig said: "The effect of that contract of sale was that a person - John Clarkson - was said to have taken over the business and liabilities.

"The document was a forgery, it was false. There was no sale. The firm of solicitors referred to in the contract could not be found."

Lauder was declared bankrupt in August 2005, and also told the Insolvency Service he had sold his company earlier in the year.

But he went on to sign further agreements in the name of his firm, hired a van and took out adverts touting for business in local magazines.

Miss Haig said Insolvency Service investigators also discovered that none of the parties mentioned in the contract - the buyer and legal firm - existed.

Simon Myers, mitigating, said: "He was trying to juggle in order to keep the company going, but ge was in so deep he could not resurrect the situation.

"But he did not extend his line of credit with the creditor, and there is no suggestion that if he had come clean at that stage any different financial situation would have occurred."

Lauder, of Downing Court, admitted securing the remission of a liability and making a false statutory statement, and was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.

Judge George Moorhouse told him: "It would seem you foolishly behaved out of character."


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