A BUILDER helped to run a business despite being banned from involvement in managing any company, a court heard.

Ian Stuart Teeder last week received a suspended prison sentence, after flouting a court order made following a previous conviction.

In 2001, he was disqualified from taking part in the running or managing of any company for eight years, following a conviction at Newcastle Crown Court for false accounting and using a false instrument, for which he also received a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Durham Crown Court heard that he was subsequently involved in the running of Castleside Developments Ltd, initially based in Castleside, but which later moved to Prospect Business Park, in Leadgate.

A contract building business, incorporated in May 2004, it built up a workforce of about 30, until it went into liquidation, with deficiencies of £534,717, in April 2007.

Diana Maudslay, prosecuting for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, said a recovery and insolvency director was appointed to oversee the liquidation.

Following subsequent complaints, Castleside Developments was fined after a prosecution by Durham County Council’s trading standards department for illegal use of the logo of the trade body, the Federation of Master Builders.

Further complaints from dissatisfied customers, unaware Castleside Developments was in liquidation, revealed Teeder to be acting as proprietor of the business.

Teeder, 41, of The Village Green, Shotley Bridge, admitted a single charge brought by the department of being concerned in the running of a company while disqualified, between May 2004 and April 2007.

Andrew Rutter, mitigating, said crime proceeds inquiries would be academic as Teeder has been declared bankrupt. He said Teeder hoped that any punishment would still enable him to take up an opportunity to work in Dubai later in the year.

Recorder Graham Hyland said the offence merited a custodial sentence, but he could suspend it given Teeder’s guilty plea and what he read about him in presentence probation reports. He imposed a suspended 12-month prison sentence, with 200 hours of unpaid work. He also disqualified Teeder from acting as a company director for 12 years.