A NORTH-EAST couple yesterday admitted masterminding one of the biggest jobs-for-cash scams in Britain.

The husband and wife team fleeced 16,000 people - including the elderly and disabled - in a con that netted them £250,000 and funded a lavish lifestyle.

Richard Alderson, 32, and his wife, Alison, 35, of Briarhill, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, advertised nationwide for home workers to fill envelopes for mail order firms.

The couple charged as much as £35 for a start-up kit and promised £60 for every 100 envelopes done. But police believe that only two people out of 16,000 made enough from the work to recover their initial payment.

And when workers rang to complain they found themselves talking on a premium rate £1-a-minute phone line.

Appearing before Teesside Crown Court yesterday, the couple pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud members of the public between May 1998 and December 2000, by offering employment subject to the payment of a registration fee, when there was no intention to provide such employment.

Trading standards officers and police received complaints from people from as far afield as the Shetland Islands and Cornwall.

A spokesman for Durham County Council said: "We had a substantial amount of complaints. The information went straight to Durham Police."

The Aldersons ran ten companies with names including Classic Marketing, Royal Marketing and Progress Publishing, from accommodation addresses across the country, including Inglewood Close, Darlington and Hartington Road, Stockton.

When police raided the couple's headquarters -AR Enterprises in Chester-le-Street - in April 2000, they found a bin liner stuffed with letters of complaint.

The pair were remanded on bail for reports before sentencing. Judge George Moorhouse warned them that they could go to jail.

Residents living near the couple, who asked not to be named, last night spoke of the Aldersons' lavish lifestyle, which included luxury holidays, expensive sports cars and paying people to carry out domestic chores.

Despite court proceedings, the couple even applied for planning permission to build an extension on their home last year.

One neighbour said: "They had a gardener, cleaners and someone to collect the ironing.

"They used to have great big marquees in the back garden for parties. We thought they had won the pools."

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Tim Fletcher, of Durham CID, said: "The money was spent on luxury living - day trips to Lapland for the kids and such."

* The prosecution offered no evidence against Richard Alderson's half brother, Darren, 25, of Hollycrest, Chester-le-Street. He had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud.