A COMPANY director who felt he was being underpaid for the work he did siphoned off more than £85,000 from the business.

William Plumpton-Whyte fleeced the firm for eight years and left it facing financial hardship, a court heard yesterday.

The 65-year-old narrowly avoided immediate prison so he can continue to work and repay the business partner he ripped off.

Plumpton-Whyte, from Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, set up and had a share in car transportation company AutoPlate UK Ltd.

He had control over payments to contractors in the northern arm of the business in Middlesborough, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Shaun Dryden told how he created two fictitious workers and paid himself their wages between 2007 and last year.

Nicci Horton, mitigating, said he was "somewhat conflicted about how this has happened and how he feels about it".

In an interview with a probation officer, he tried to justify his long-running fraud by saying he was not paid enough.

Miss Horton said: "He has been a very hard-working man all of his life and he tried his best to provide for his family.

"He clearly feels he has not been able to do enough and he felt he had to resort to stealing from his own company.

"He took a great amount of pride from setting up his own company but felt his pay regime wasn't appropriate or truly reflective of the amount of work he had put in.

"His thinking was not clear or logical and that may explain the actions that he took."

Plumpton-Whyte, of Norby Estate, Thirsk, admitted two charges of fraud and was given a two-year suspended jail sentence.

He was also ordered to undergo two years of supervision to help with financial management, and observe a curfew for six months from 9pm to 7am.

Judge Colin Burn told him he also needed to examine his lack of victim empathy with the help of the Probation Service.

"I am quite satisfied you didn't give any thought to anyone but yourself and your family when you perpetrated these offences," the judge said.

"This has had a serious finical affect on your business partner and it will have affected the value of his shares, and will have come pretty close to putting the business under."