TWO bosses of a green energy company have been jailed for a swindle in which they lied to get a £250,000 loan from a Government scheme.

Clive Tayton and Frederick Bartlett tried to prop up their failing company Bionova Recycling, based in Okehampton, with the cash which they obtained by claiming they were also putting £250,000 of new capital into the company.

Tayton, aged 53, of Bratton Clovelly, and Bartlett, aged 68, of Romsey, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

Tayton was jailed for 20 months and Bartlett for 18 months by Recorder Mr David Bartlett at Exeter Crown Court.

They paid £50,000 from a different account into Bionova and then churned the same amount through the account five times before removing it again.

The £250,000 came from the Government backed South West Cleantech co-investment fund, which only agreed to lend it if Bionova could show new investment of the same amount.

The directors edited their bank statements and provided a version which showed the £50,000 going in five times, but not going out again, thus giving a misleading impression.

Recorder David Bartlett told them: ’This was a potentially innovative business based on sound science but was less soundly based financially. It got into trouble and sourced this money dishonestly.

’Only £5,000 went directly to Tayton but if the fraud had succeeded and the money had helped the company, they would both have benefited from that.

’It is an important feature of this case that this was government money and these funds are not available to anybody else. It would send out the wrong message if you could get away with losing the Exchequer a quarter of a million and not be punished.’

Mr Richard Shepherd, prosecuting for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, said Bionova, based at Fatherford Farm on Exeter Road, turned food waste into bio-fuel.

The business ran short of money and in May 2013 made the fraudulent application for the grant and provided the bank statements to give the false impression there was matched funding.

The £250,000 was used to pay creditors and existing bills and to keep the business afloat. It went bust in April 2014, owing £970,000 and the loan from Cleantech has not been repaid.

The loan application was made at a time when the company was so short of cash that one e-mail said it was down to its last £20.

Mr Shepherd said: ’The annotated bank statements which they used showed there was £250,000 going into the company when there was no such investment.

’The money had been transferred through the account and out again so when the carousel stopped, there was no additional money in Bionova. It was a sham. The money was dissipated within six weeks.’

The only money paid to either defendant was £5,030 to Tayton. Both men were later disqualified from acting as directors for ten years.

Mr Robin Leach, for Bartlett, said he had only got involved with the company because he thought it had a future and believed the loan would be repaid.

He had lost everything as a result of this case. He had been forced to give up his career as a management accountant, agreed to being disqualified as a director, and was living on a small pension with his wife in rented accomodation.

Miss Emily Cook, for Tayton, said he founded the company in 2009 and it was based on innovative technology which he hoped to sell around the world.

He undertook the fraud to keep the business going rather than for personal gain and carried on investing his own money and time after 2013. She said Tayton had received testimonials from business people and fellow members of the Dartmoor Rescue Group and a skiing charity where he acted as a volunteer.Former Bionova director Aaron Custance was found not guilty of fraudulent trading in connection with the company after no evidence was offered by the prosecution.