A fraudster who fleeced computer suppliers of £244,000 worth of equipment, was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday.

Mother-of-two Nichola Brough ordered computer and other electrical equipment under assumed names with no intention of paying for them.

Durham Crown Court was told several suppliers, mostly small businesses, which fell victim to her deceit, had struggled to cope with the loss - and it led to two going bust.

Brough, 28, with no previous convictions, carried out her spree over a 15-month period from July 2000, making telephone orders for computer equipment, initially for goods worth £8,730, but mounting to £42,000 in one case.

Items were delivered to her home, in Merrybent, Darlington, and from last autumn in Eastbourne Road, in the town.

She initially made the orders using the name Angela Shepherd, of Shepherd Accounting, but later went under the guise of Rebecca Curran, of Rebecca Curran Computer Doctor, and subsequently RC Computers.

When arrested, in February, she made full admissions, telling police she sold some of the equipment to a man called Fox, who advertised it in newspapers.

They split the proceeds from subsequent sales and she used her share to solve spiralling debt problems.

Brian Russell, mitigating for Brough, said apart from a £12,000 Mercedes car, and placing her children in a private nursery, there were, "no signs of a champagne lifestyle".

Brough admitted 17 charges of obtaining by deception at a previous hearing. Yesterday, she asked for 13 other offences to be taken into consideration.

Jailing her, Judge Michael Cartlidge described Brough as a clever and persistent fraudster.

After the hearing, one of her victims, Ian Henderson, of PC Recovery, at Stockton Business Centre, which supplied £16,000 worth of computers to Brough, said: "It's absolutely disgusting what she's done.

"We're only a small business and we only survived by remortgaging our home. It nearly finished us and we'll never get it back."