A COMPANY director who swapped the board room for the court room has narrowly avoided being jailed for fraud.

Gary Crickmore, the former �96,000 a year business development director of Fenmarc, admitted stealing between �5,000 from the company over a ten month period.

He did it by using his company credit card to rake in the extra cash and when he failed to provide receipts for his sudden increase in expenditure he was suspended and later sacked.

At Peterborough Crown Court he admitted fraud and was given an 18 week jail sentence, suspended for two years, and told he must carry out 220 hours of unpaid community work. It was back in April that the vegetable, potato and prepared produce supplier confirmed that Crickmore had left the business but at that time no explanation was given. He had been with the firm for more than 11 years.

Prior to joining Fenmarc in March, Cambridgeshire, he had been general manager with Tinsley Foods which he left in 1999, two years before the Lincs food supplier went bust with the loss of 850 jobs.

In court Crickmore was said to have lost everything – including his home- as a result of the case. His barrister called it a stupid and unsophisticated crime.

The money was returned by Fenmarc who deducted it from his salary.