A COUPLE from Chester-le-Street last week admitted masterminding one of the biggest jobs-for-cash scams in Britain.

The husband and wife team fleeced 16,000 people - including the elderly and disabled - in a con that netted them £250,000 and funded a lavish lifestyle.

Richard Alderson, 32, and his wife, Alison, 35, of Briarhill, advertised nationwide for home workers to fill envelopes for mail order firms.

The couple charged as much as £35 for a start-up kit and promised £60 for every 100 envelopes done.

But detectives believe that only two people out of the thousands duped made enough to recover their initial payment.

Appearing before Teesside Crown Court last week, the couple pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud members of the public between May 1998 and December 2000, by offering employment subject to the payment of a registration fee, when there was no intention to provide such employment.

They were arrested after Trading Standards officers and police received complaints from people from the Shetland Islands to Cornwall.

The Aldersons ran ten companies from accommodation addresses across the country, including Inglewood Close, Darlington, and Hartington Road, Stockton. The pair drew more money out of their victims by diverting their telephoned complaints to a premium-rate, £1-a-minute phone line.

When police raided the headquarters of AR Enterprises in Chester-le-Street, in April 2000, they found a bin liner stuffed with letters of complaint.

Alderson admitted he had devised the whole scam. The couple were remanded on bail before sentence.

Judge George Moorhouse told them: "This is a very serious matter and may well result in you losing your liberty in due course."

Speaking after the hearing, Det Con Tim Lerner of Durham Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit said: "It was a complex and protracted investigation.

"It affected many members of society, especially the disabled, single mothers and the elderly and others less able to afford to lose money. The money was spent on luxury living."

The prosecution offered no evidence against Richard Alderson's half brother, Darren, 25, of Hollycrest, Chester-le-Street. He had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud.

Residents living near to the couple, who asked not to be named, spoke of Richard and Alison Alderson's lavish lifestyle, which included luxury holidays, expensive sports cars and paying people to carry out domestic chores.

One woman neighbour said: "They had a gardener, cleaners and someone to collect the ironing."

"They used to have great big marquees in the back garden for parties at every anniversary or birthday. We thought they had won the pools.

"What they have done is a nasty thing to do to ordinary folks. Doing that to people who cannot afford it is dreadful."

Another neighbour said: "He bought himself a brand new car shortly after they moved in, then within weeks he was driving around in a Porsche.

"They were always holidaying abroad - Lapland, Florida, and Tenerife, at least a couple of times a year - and they always had new things."