Former Darlington FC chairman George Reynolds, serving three years' jail for cheating the taxman out of more than half a million pounds, will mount an Appeal Court bid for freedom on Thursday.

Reynolds, 69, of Monument Court, Nevilles Cross, Durham, and his cousin Richard Tennick, 59, were due to have their appeals heard today but the hearing of the case has now been postponed until Thursday.

The pair in October this year admitted carrying out a tax scam between 1998 and 2004 in which they cheated HM Revenue and Customs out of £650,000 in unpaid tax.

Tennick, of Manfield, North Yorks, was handed a two-year term after Newcastle Crown Court heard how the pair, who ran George Reynolds UK in Shildon, had acted with "cavalier contempt".

However, both men will argue at London's Appeal Court on Thursday that their jail terms were "manifestly excessive" and they should now be freed.