A TRIAL date has been set for the case of two men accused of defrauding a village church of about £20,000 of its funds.

The money is said to have been taken from the account of St Michael and All Angels Church, in Esh Village, near Durham, in the twelve months from March, 2014.

It was only when the Anglican parish church was billed for the installation of a new central heating system, which was not paid for, that inquiries were launched.

The resulting investigation led to the now former church treasurer, Frank Michael Pocock, and “an associate”, Peter Taylor, described at a previous hearing as an accountant, being arrested and charged with a number of offences relating to the missing funds.

Sixty-one-year-old Mr Pocock, of Wilks Hill, Quebec, near Durham, is accused of theft of the £20,000, between March 3, 2014, and March 3, 2015.

He is also charged with two counts of transferring criminal property, and a joint offence, with Taylor, of doing an act intended and tending to pervert the course of public justice, by doing a “series of acts” which sought to conceal the theft of the money. from the church.

The charges are yet to be put to him, and a plea and trial preparation hearing at Durham Crown Court yesterday was told that the indictment is to be re-draughted so that the transferring criminal property allegations are replaced with two offences of fraud by abuse of position.

They will be put to the defendant at a further plea hearing to be staged at the court, in June.

But, 57-year-old Taylor, of Eglington Court, Gateshead, put in his pleas at a hearing last month, when he denied the joint charge of perverting the course of justice.

He also pleaded not guilty to two counts of possessing criminal property, relating to sums of £500 and £300 belonging to the church, and four counts of fraud relating to withdrawals of different sums of money from the bank.

Taylor did, however, plead guilty to two counts of being an unqualified person acting as a solicitor in a civil or criminal cause or matter, on dates in February and May, 2015.

Both defendants were granted unconditional bail by Judge Deborah Sherwin to return for the plea hearing, on a date yet to be confirmed in June, when the re-draughted indictment will be put to Mr Pocock.

Prosecuting counsel Jonathan Walker, defence barristers Chris Knox, for Mr Pocock, and Paul Cross, for Taylor, agreed on a provisional date for a trial of up to five days, to start at the court, in the week beginning Monday, October 2.