Middlesbrough fraudster who set up ghost companies to suppliers to work in community

A fraudster who set up ghost companies to fleece suppliers is going to be working unpaid for the community for the next year.

Paul Fyfe, 33, from Middlesbrough, who was prosecuted by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, was also banned from being a director or running a company for four years.

He set up three computer and IT companies in 2012 and then applied for credit accounts with suppliers.

Prosecutor Richard Bennett, appearing for the Department, told Teesside Crown Court yesterday that Fyfe used them to defraud companies including kitchen and building suppliers of a total of £43, 471.

Fyfe opened trade accounts after exaggerating how long his companies had been operating and he obtained credits of up to £3,000 each which were used to the full extent. One company wrote off a £3,000 debt.

Fyfe would offer to pay by direct debit or he promised payments by cheque which never materialised. Requests for payments drew no response.

When he was interviewed in June last year he said that he set up one company because his finances were in a mess.

Mr Bennett added: “He was asked what he did with various goods he obtained and he said that a lot of goods were sold to Cash Converters and he could not recall the disposal of all of the goods.

“He is no stranger to committing offences of fraud. He has a conviction and a caution from 2012.

“These three companies were clearly set up to allow the defendant to defraud creditors.”

Fyfe used some of the goods from bathroom and kitchen suppliers to “spruce up” his house , which was the registered office for his companies PF Computers, PF Computers Ltd which was wound up in February 2013, Digi Intel 2009 Ltd and Teesside Security 2000 Ltd.

Duncan McReddie, defending, said that the companies were simply the vehicle by which Fyfe perpetrated the fraud.

Fyfe had given early pleas of guilty and he had expressed remorse.

The frauds began when he lost his job and he hid his financial problems from his partner while pretending that the family finances were still sound.

He now had a part-time job in the security industry and he had been given an offer of manual work.

The judge told Fyfe that he had been defrauding companies when he had no intention or ability to pay his accounts.

Judge Peter Armstrong said: “I am persuaded in your case to suspend the sentence which would otherwise be imposed.”

Fyfe, of Linmoor Avenue, Middlesbrough, was given an 18 months jail sentence suspended for two years, 200 hours unpaid work and banned from acting as a director of a company for four years after he pleaded guilty to three charges of fraudulent trading.