A FORMER North-East businessman is believed to have killed himself hours before receiving an expected jail sentence for fraud.

Father-of-two Colin Hutchinson threw himself off London Bridge shortly after midnight yesterday.

The 41-year-old was a partner in Business Process Improvements (BPI), of Billingham, Teesside, in the late 1990s, which was contracted to a Government-sponsored project to create jobs in London.

Hutchinson, originally from County Durham, and John Thompson falsified performance figures to illicitly boost payments to the firm, London's Southwark Crown Court heard.

Last month, Hutchinson, a former Middlesbrough accountant, and Thompson, 45, changed their plea and admitted two charges of false accounting, between July 1997 and March 1998.

Hutchinson and Thompson, who both lived in London, were warned by Judge James Wadsworth, QC, that a custodial sentence was the most likely outcome.

Jeremy Donne, prosecuting, broke the news of Hutchinson's death to the court yesterday.

He said: "A man, believed to be Hutchinson, jumped to his death from London Bridge last night. Clearly, this is a very tragic turn to this case."

Judge Wadsworth said: "If, as seems terribly likely, it is Hutchinson, I extend the court's deepest sympathies and condolences to the family."