TWO Worcester businessmen who were given suspended jail sentences in a fraud case have escaped a ban on working as company directors.

A judge at Worcester Crown Court said it would be like “kicking a dog when he’s down” if he ordered a ban on Brandon Weston and Chris Williams.

Weston, the former boss of Premier Places in Foregate Street, Worcester, was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years in September when he admitted four counts of fraud.

HIs bookkeeper Chris Williams was given eight months jail, suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery.

Both were ordered to do unpaid work.

An application for both of them to be disqualified under the Company Directors Disqualification Act of 1986 should have been made at the time but it was missed due to an oversight, Simon Phillips, prosecuting, told the court.

The case involved using deposits from 203 tenants totalling £134,000 to finance other business interests instead of ring-fencing them under changed legislation.

The losses were covered by insurance, the court heard.

Daniel White, for Weston, said he had sold the business and his properties and his home abroad was under legal restraint so that any proceeds from its sale would be taken.

He had found another job in management to support his young family and any disqualification would affect his future prospects.

“He has sold everything he has,” Mr White said. “He narrowly avoided a prison sentence and any future risk to the public is negligible.”

Weston, of White Ladies Aston, between Worcester and Pershore, formerly had a stake in the Glasshouse restaurant in Worcester, and owned seven properties in Worcester and a house in France.

Joseph Millington, for 47-year-old Williams, of Church Lane, Whittington, near Worcester, said he had learned a great deal from the experience.

“It has had a significant impact on his life,” he said.

Williams is still a director of a company he intends to wind up and he did not pose a future risk, Mr Millington said.

Judge Richard Rundell said disqualifiaction in this case was discretionary rather than mandatory.

“Both men have begun the long and no doubt painful process of rehabilitating themselves and this is not a case for disqualification,” he said.

“It smacks of kicking a dog when he’s down. Both men have suffered for their dishonesty.”

He said no order would be made.