FOUR men are facing prison sentences for their parts in a plot to swindle a council out of £100,000 with bogus invoices for machine hire and labour costs.

A jury convicted Michael Skirving, Martin Dougherty and James Burns of conspiracy to defraud and Graeme Storey of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The verdicts were returned yesterday after the Teesside Crown Court jury of eight women and four men deliberated for more than five hours over two days.

The defendants – all from Hartlepool – will be sentenced next month after background reports are prepared on them by the Probation Service.

Judge Peter Armstrong told them: “The amounts involved are serious and you can expect, I’m afraid, custodial sentences. You should prepare for custody.”

The jury heard how Skirving, the asbestos manager at Darlington Borough Council, masterminded the fraud with business friends Dougherty and Burns.

He got Burns, 43, to invoice his authority for hiring cherry- pickers which were said to have been used on housing projects in Hartlepool when they were not.

During a five-week trial, the court heard that Burns’s company had nothing to do with building or repairs, but specialised in printing and design work.

Dougherty, 45, was instructed to bill the council for supplying labour for other projects in Hartlepool, as well as nearby Billingham and Middlesbrough.

Alcoholic Storey, 38, was later recruited by 50-year-old Skirving in a pub to try to cover up the con by telling police he had been one of the workers.

Rosalind Scott Bell, prosecuting, said nearly £33,500 had been paid out – signed off as legitimate by Skirving – for cherry-picker hire on 46 occasions.

The court heard that the machine was rarely – if ever – seen on any of the sites, but documents were later produced to show its delivery on a several dates.

Invoices totalling a further £75,754 were submitted by Dougherty’s roofing firm and approved by Skirving for work on the regeneration schemes.

Skirving, of Grange Road, Dougherty, of Westbrooke Avenue, Burns, of Wansbeck Gardens, and Storey, of Hart Lane, were given bail until their next appearance.