TWO men who plotted to defraud a car dealership were jailed on Monday.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that sales manager Bernard Nolan and second-hand car dealer Christopher Courtenay schemed to cheat Nolan's company out of profits on the sale of 79 cars.

Fictitious entries purported to show the cars had gone through the books of New Ferry Car Auctions when they had, in fact, been sold on by Courtenay, who split the profits with Nolan.

The pair were involved with 12 other cars before this and Nolan was responsible for the loss of 53 other cars in the last six weeks of the plot that resulted in the loss of more than £121,000 to D. C. Cook (Wirral) Ltd.

Nolan, aged 33, of Upton Road, Moreton, and Courtenay, 29, of no fixed address, but formerly of Lennox Lane, Bidston, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud D. C. Cook between January 1995 and November 15, 1996.

Jailing Nolan for 30 months and Courtenay for 15 months, Judge Ian Trigger said they were the main players in a 'brazen' conspiracy which was aggravated in Nolan's case by his position of trust.

He told Nolan: "You acquired a good livelihood from your employers but greed made you lust after more money."

Mr Andrew McDonald, prosecuting, said that the majority of the cars were trade cars that D. C. Cook had deemed should be sold at auction rather than on their forecourt and were assigned minimum sales value.

Nolan was initially entitled to sell them to dealers but later disregarded a company memo that they should go to auction.

In May 1996 he approached Philip Docherty, who ran New Ferry Car Auctions, and told him he was being threatened, after which vehicles were fictitiously put through the books.

Docherty received £25 per car - cash which he has subsequently paid back to D. C. Cook, he said.

Matters came to light after accountants seeking to reconcile the stock were not convinced by a fax from Docherty supporting Nolan's claim that 25 vehicles were on his premises.

They went to see for themselves and, to their surprise, found Nolan there with Docherty.

In November 1996 there was evidence that undischarged bankrupt Courtenay was living beyond his means, with a BMW motor car on his driveway and thought to be holidaying in the West Indies.

Mr Henry Gow, defending, said that Nolan was man of previous good character.

Mr Donal McGuire, defending, said that Courtenay established a business with another and its failure led to the bankruptcy order two years ago.

He did not think that D. C. Cook would lose out, bar the potential for profit - some cars did not make the minimum value on sale, he said.

Docherty, 37, of Kenilworth Road, Little Neston, who pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge, was fined £1,000 on a previous occasion.

At the hearing, Judge Trigger described him as 'foolish', but essentially not a criminal person who had assisted a person who had told him he was being threatened.

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