Two greedy businessman have been jailed after a court heard how they sold off thousands of pounds worth of company mobile phones.

David Bradshaw, 50, of Shot Tower Close in Boughton, Chester, was managing director of Control Group Services Ltd based at Sealand, Flintshire.

CGS Ltd, the British arm of an American company, provided services to out of town shopping centres and retail premises including security and cleaning.

But Mold Crown Court heard how despite earning between £100,000 and £120,000 a year, Bradshaw  set about ordering mobile phones which were not needed by the company and sold them on.

He also sold a company car and kept the £15,000 proceeds and was jailed for four years.

Bradshaw was also banned from being the director of a company for the next five years after Judge David Hale told him he was not fit to be a director.

Company secretary Warren Clays, 39, of Ffrwd Road in Cefn-y-Bedd, Flintshire, who earned £50,000 a year after climbing up the ladder despite leaving school with no qualifications, was jailed for 32 months.

The court heard that unusually Clays had not spent the money he had received and it was all still available in a bank account.

An investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act will now take place to see how much of their ill-gotten gains can be recovered.

Judge Hale said 303 mobile phones had been sold on for some £90,000 but the company also faced a further £33,000 bill by being responsible for monthly contracts for phones which they did not have.

It was, the judge said, a prolonged fraud against their employers.

He said it was a breach of trust because Bradshaw was the MD and in day-to-day charge.

It was a quite deliberate fraud where they ordered company mobile phones and sold them for personal profit.

They tried to hide what they were doing and both knew about an arrangement where a company customer was asked to provide false invoices to try to cover up what they were doing.

The defendants had “disregarded the ordinary standards of management and honesty” which had done the British part of the company “immense harm”, said the judge.

When the company considered selling the British part of the company it found that its reputation as an asset was damaged.

Both admitted that for a period up to April, 2014, they conspired together to commit fraud by making a false representation, namely the sale of company mobile phones.

Bradshaw also admitted fraud by selling a company vehicle, intending to make a gain of £15,000 for himself.

David Mainstone, prosecuting, said in 2014 a consultant was taken on to investigate anomalies in the company finances and Bradshaw was dismissed in May 2014.

The company took legal action against him and obtained a £160,000 civil judgement against him.

A total of £130,000 was repaid when his house was sold. That was nothing to do with the current charges.

Police investigating the activities of a man in London named Jozsef Poor – who had been jailed for various offences involving mobile phones – found that a large number of mobiles, about 300, had been provided by the defendants, initially through eBay.

CGS had 78 employees who needed mobiles and of the 303 phones taken out in the company name only 10 were legitimate phone contracts. The others were taken out although the company did not need them, and were sold on.

Matthew Curtis, defending Bradshaw, said he was a broken man who had been twice divorced.

He had been a man with a significant standing commercially and within his personal life but he had lost everything.

Bradshaw had made admissions to the company and then to the police. He had tried to set up a business himself but that had failed.

Stephen Edwards, for Clays, said all the money he had received had been retained.

He had £174,000 in a bank account which included some of his own savings.

Clays, said Mr Edwards, had been a talented footballer but was homesick, returned home as a youngster and worked as a labourer.

He met Bradshaw and was taken on as an account clerks and worked his way up to become company secretary.

Clays had not been the driving force but a plot was hatched to sell surplus mobile phones and he had gone along with it.

Both defendants, who had no previous convictions, said they had pleaded guilty and had the matters hanging over them for a very long time.

Welcoming the sentences, investigating officer DC Arwel Thomas, of North Wales Police, said: “This case has demonstrated just how low some people will sink to make money and abuse their powers in the workplace.

“These were despicable and selfish acts which contributed to the closure of the company and with other employees losing their jobs.

“Money that was needed to ensure the company remained in trade was lost. However, a Proceeds of Crime investigation will now commence to try to recover some of the money.

“In the meantime I hope the victims will take some reassurance from these sentences.”