A GARAGE owner and his partner committed a series of frauds and tried to pay for stays in plush hotels with counterfeit cash, a court heard.

David Soulsby used a “shell” company no longer in operation and a driving licence in the name of one of its former directors to get finance on two cars, a £33,000 Audi and a £25,000 Volkswagen Eos. One was later seized by police, the other handed back.

He also sold a 4x4 Mitsubishi to a customer of his garage, Consett based EW Motors, even though it belonged to a finance company and the payments on it had stopped.

His partner Aimee Felton obtained a credit card processing facility for her business, Rapid Recycling Ltd, and tried to use it to process a number of transactions for amounts including £98,00 and £24,500.

She also tried and failed to fraudulently obtain a £79,000 VAT refund for a tyre-shredding machine she falsely claimed the company had bought and admitted fraudulently obtaining a debt ‘factoring’ agreement.

Both pleaded guilty and also admitted offences in relation to the possession of and attempted use of counterfeit £20 notes.

Ian West, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said the pair stayed at the Hilton Hotel, in Cobham, Surrey, and tried to pay with counterfeit notes. Police were called and, although the bill was paid legitimately, on their return they were stopped when getting off a train and found to have 240 counterfeit £20 notes.

Andrew Stranex, for 36-year-old Soulsby, of Watergate Road, Consett, County Durham, said he was unable to cope after his father died, leaving him to take over the running of the business.

“Things got on top of him financially, although he tried to keep things going,” he said.

Mr Stranex said Soulsby, declared bankrupt after a petition by his own brother, “foolishly” began using counterfeit money after he received it from a customer.

He said: “In each of their cases the actual loss was much less than what was attempted.”

Denise Breen-Lawton, for 25-year-old Felton, of Willow Grove, Harrogate, said her offending was unsophisticated and that she had been of good character.

“She has shown proper remorse and has turned her life around," adding that Felton would lose everything if jailed.

Judge Peter Bowers jailed Soulsby for two years and gave Felton a 21 month sentence, suspended for two years. He ordered her to do 200 hours unpaid work and made her subject to a six month night-time curfew.

Soulsby was disqualified from holding a directorship for 12 years and Felton eight years.