A company director who turned to crime in a bid to save his failing business narrowly escaped jail yesterday.

Ian Teeder, 33, director of the Brooklands 4x4 Garage in West Auckland, County Durham, set up a credit facility with Lombard Motor Fianance on the false basis that he had £171,000 security.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that when the finance company realised the money was not available, Teeder created eight invoices for more than £80,000 worth of cars to trick the company into thinking he had spent the money on stock.

The company went into liquidation in March 1999, with debts in excess of £500,000.

Yesterday, Teeder pleaded guilty to one charge of false accounting and eight charges of using a copy of a false instrument with intent.

Sarah Mallett, prosecuting, told the court how Lombard gradually increased Teeder's credit limit from the spring of 1997 after he produced sound business credentials and put up capital of his own.

He opened a second branch at Northallerton, North Yorkshire, in 1998 and was in the process of setting up a third when the company folded.

Miss Mallett said: "When the net tightened, the defendant said he used the £171,000 to purchase stock, and produced 18 invoices indicating that vehicles to a total value of £215,000 had been bought.

"Eight of those invoices were entirely false. The vehicles simply did not exist."

Defence barrister John Evans told the court how married Teeder, of Witton Road, Bishop Auckland, had panicked when he realised the downturn in business was not just a "blip".

Judge Beatrice Bolton agreed to suspend Teeder's 15-month prison sentence for two years due to the time it took for the case to get to court.

She disqualified him from being a company director for eight years.