Conspirators: Businessmen drawn into web of fraud

They admitted conspiring with its manager to circulate large sums of money between the organisations, providing the opportunity to make it appear the unit was generating an income which didn't exist.

For their part, they took commission payments – and that resulted in a two-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office which led to their prosecution.

William Whitehead, of Mansfield Road, Heath, Chesterfield, Paul Liggins, of Elwes Way, Northampton, and David Abbott, of Waterthorpe Grove, Sheffield, had been due to stand trial for conspiracy to commit false accounting.

They changed their pleas to guilty at court earlier this year.

They claimed to have been initially hoodwinked by Mr Buckley, who was a respected figure, and accepted his request for "unusual" invoices.

All three were given suspended 12-month jail terms.

They were also ordered to pay back tens of thousands of pounds and carry out unpaid community work.