A FATHER and son being hunted by detectives after fleeing their North-East business with customers' cash may have carried out the same scam in the South, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Gary Upson and his son, Ryan, disappeared last month with hundreds of thousands of pounds from their Darlington horse box business, Just Trucks.

The Northern Echo has discovered that the pair vanished from a similar business, Omega Horse Boxes, in Tiptree, Essex, in the early 1990s.

Essex Police investigated a handful of complaints about the company not providing wagons to customers, but ended its inquiry when the Upsons could not be found.

Victims are now demanding to know why warrants were not issued for their arrests.

Matt Garnett, from Nottinghamshire, who gave Just Trucks a £10,000 deposit for a horse box which he never received, said: "I am disgusted that they let these people get away to do it again.

"Some other poor sucker is going to fall foul of them when they set up again, because I am sure they will."

Angela Greensitt, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, handed over an £8,000 deposit and a £7,000 wagon in part-exchange to Just Trucks.

She said: "I can't understand why the police in Essex just thought 'they've gone, we'll not bother'. They should have tried to find them to prevent them from doing it again."

Mrs Greensitt is angry with Darlington police, who she said were not interested when she and her husband, Ian, complained about the Upsons.

Officers were called to Just Trucks premises, in Banks Road, by the Upsons in March, when Mr Greensitt arrived to try to get his deposit back.

They told both parties to contact their solicitors as it was a civil matter.

"I am convinced what happened to us could have been prevented if the police had only listened that day," said Mrs Greensitt. "Ian tried to tell them that they had our money and wagon but they didn't want to know."

An Essex Police spokesman confirmed that the force's fraud squad did investigate Omega Horse Boxes after allegations were made by customers about non-delivery of wagons in the 1980s and 1990s.

He said: "Eventually our lines of inquiry dried up purely because we could not trace the owners.

"We had no option but to advise the customers of their right of power through the civil courts."

He said all possible means of tracing the Upsons were exhausted but they were never interviewed, arrested or charged with anything.

"The complaints - of which there were less than five - weren't substantial enough to issue warrants for arrest," he added.

Detective Constable Tim Lerner, of Durham's fraud squad, said he would be speaking to Essex Police.

He has now received more than 40 complaints from people owed money by Just Trucks.

"I followed up a couple of leads to try to find out where they were but that came to nothing," he said. "We have got them circulated as wanted and eventually they'll surface."

A Durham Police spokes-man said of the Greensitts' complaint: "Back in March there was no reason to believe any dispute between Just Trucks and its customers was anything other than isolated and likely to be a civil, as opposed to a police, matter.

"Events since the start of June, when the Upsons left Darlington and could not be traced have, of course, put things in a different light."

Anyone with information about the Upsons' whereabouts is asked to call Det Con Lerner on 0191-386 4929.