FORMER professional footballers, including an ex-Middlesbrough player, invented “ghost learners” to steal £5m of public cash intended to fund the training of apprentices, a court has heard.

Paul Sugrue, 56, who played as a forward 89 times for Boro between 1982 and 1985 and for Manchester City and Cardiff City, and Wales international Mark Aizlewood, 57, are said to have committed the scam through their business, Luis Michael Training Ltd between 2009 and 2011.

The pair, along with fellow directors Keith Williams, 45, and Christopher Martin, 53, are alleged to have submitted false accounts to colleges to persuade them to do business with the firm - a provider of football-based apprenticeship schemes for young people.

The company then set about enrolling suitable apprentices to claim money from the colleges, which was provided by the Government.

But Southwark Crown Court heard some of the apprentices did not exist, while others received just two to three hours training a week.

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy QC said LM Training even got children on work experience in its office to complete tests, reviews and comments on behalf of learners and employers.

The court heard LM Training was set up in 2009 to provide apprenticeship training to eligible learners in partnership with colleges.

The colleges had direct contracts with The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and received public funding to educate students.

The prosecutor explained: “Having persuaded the colleges to enter into partnership agreements, the defendants went about purporting to identify, enrol and train apprentices so as to be able to claim the funding from the colleges, and the colleges claimed the public funds from the LSC.”

Aizlewood, Sugrue, and Williams, from Cemaes Bay, Anglesey, each deny two counts of conspiracy to commit false representation. Martin, from Catmore, in Berkshire, has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

The trial continues.