A WOMAN who started a financial services company with the help of a starter pack costing only £120, and then her own website, failed to reveal in newspaper adverts that she was bankrupt.

However, Marilyn Saville, 53, of Foxberry, Bramble Court, Sherburn in Elmet, North Yorkshire, was incompetent rather than criminal and got out of her debt when she listened to advice given to her by experts, York Crown Court was told yesterday.

Saville, who was made bankrupt in 1997 at Dewsbury Crown Court, pleaded guilty to three offences under the Insolvency Act.

Her barrister, Stephen Lunt, said she had been living under the threat of going to prison since her arrest in March last year and that in itself had been a sentence.

Recorder David Smith accepted that Saville, who operated the financial services business from home, was in breach of technical offences and had been under the business influence of two men who took advantage of her.

He said he would not jail her and, instead, ordered her to do 100 hours unpaid community service work. She should not have advertised without revealing her true identity or status, he added.