A FORMER North-East boss of one of the country's biggest housing firms is facing jail after he admitted stealing £378,000 from the company.

Peter Spoors was the managing director of Miller Homes North East at the time of the thefts, which it is thought he carried out by misusing company cheques.

Spoors, 51, of Front Street, Frosterley, County Durham, yesterday pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to seven charges of obtaining a money transfer by deception between August 1998 and January 2002.

He asked for 21 other related offences to be taken into account.

Sentence was adjourned for the preparation of a report and Spoors was granted bail.

Judge Esmond Faulks warned him a jail sentence was almost inevitable.

He said: "You must obviously realise the overwhelming likelihood will be a substantial prison sentence."

Spoors, who was said to own Porsche and BMW cars and a holiday home in France, was arrested last August after a complaint from his company following an audit by accountants KPMG.

Officers from the Northumbria Police economic crime unit searched his house and seized computer equipment and paperwork.

Robert Adams, prosecuting, told the court yesterday there would be no confiscation hearing following the criminal proceedings as the company is pursuing Spoors through the civil courts. His assets have already been seized.

The court heard Spoors had co-operated fully with the investigation and made full admissions. He will be sentenced on June 11.

He had been appointed regional director when Miller Homes set up an office in North Tyneside eight years ago and became its managing director in June 2000.

Miller Homes is the country's biggest privately-owned housebuilder and one of the top three in the North-East.