DISGRACED businesswoman Mary Blair was jailed for five years yesterday for systematically stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from a North-East garage.

The 54-year-old, of Summerhouse Grove, Darlington, showed no emotion as Judge John Walford passed sentence at Teesside Crown Court for her "persistent, deliberate dishonesty committed over a protracted period of time".

Blair admitted stealing £819,200 from PMB Motors - later taken over by South Cleveland Garages - in Darlington between July 1997 and June 2002. But her victims believe the true amount was closer to £1.3m.

Blair's nephew, Christopher Grimes, 25, whom she persuaded to launder £683,481, was jailed for 15 months. His father and Blair's brother, Edward, 48, who laundered cheques worth £28,950, was given 200 hours community service.

The pair, of Bousfield Crescent, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, each admitted one charge of money laundering but claimed they thought they were helping her avoid paying tax.

The judge told Blair she had cynically betrayed the trust of her employers and had been "deceitful, manipulative and calculating" in involving her family in the deception.

Blair's barrister, Jane Waugh, earlier told the court her client had suffered a mental breakdown after her arrest and had dissociative amnesia, therefore no memory of her crimes.

But Judge Walford told Blair: "Prior to your arrest you presented to your general practitioner as being assertive, confident, well presented and with no memory problems.

"The apparent decline in your health is entirely due in my judgement to your arrest and to your being forced to come to terms with what you did."

Blair stole the money between 1997 and 2002 while working as financial director of PMB, then as an accountant at South Cleveland. She wrote company cheques out to other people's accounts before reclaiming most of the cash for herself.

The money is believed to have been used to prop up her ailing wedding dress firm, Manhattan House, which had shops in Newcastle and Darlington.

The firm, originally called Chloe Bridal Wear, eventually went into receivership and was sold for £16,000.

Yesterday, Blair sat with her head bowed, rocking back and forth.

Miss Waugh said: "Her motive for doing it can't be ascertained from her. She can't really remember anything at all of her former life."