A FORMER motor business director has denied fraudulently securing backing from a finance company.

Ian Stuart Teeder is accused of obtaining between £200,000 and £300,000 by dishonestly using his influence as a director of County Durham specialist car company, Brooklands 4x4 Ltd.

He is alleged to have acquired the money, from Lombard House, by falsely claiming he had made a loan of £171,000 to Brooklands 4x4.

Mr Teeder, 32, denied the charge, and two counts of false accounting, relating to documentation used in making the loan claim, when he appeared at Durham Crown Court yesterday.

He also denied eight charges of using false car invoices relating to a garage in Tanfield Lea, near Stanley.

All the alleged offences are said to have taken place in August 1998.

The case was adjourned for a provisional three-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court, in September, although there may be a brief interim review hearing, in May.

Mr Teeder, of Witton Road, Bishop Auckland, was bailed to return for trial.