A COMPANY boss is facing a lengthy jail sentence after yesterday confessing to a £2.5m fraud against his firm.

Douglas Brown pleaded guilty to a total of 30 charges of obtaining money transfers by deception over a 12-year period.

A complex police investigation into the finances of Palmer UK, in Hartlepool, led to Brown being arrested last year.

He was the managing director of the firm, owned by US-based Palmer International, which makes products from cashew nutshell liquid.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, Brown admitted siphoning money into his personal bank account from the company.

His wife, Joan, 58, who was also arrested as part of the lengthy probe, pleaded not guilty to a string of money-laundering charges.

Brown’s barrister, Euan Duff, told the court that the 60-year-old had always accepted his wrongdoing and was prepared to face the consequences.

He was granted bail by the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, ahead of him being sentenced, possibly on May 15.

Mr Duff told the court: “Mr Brown understands that the granting of bail is simply so he can put matters in hand before the inevitable sentence.

“I make it clear that Mr Brown always understood what the outcome of this matter would be.”

Mrs Brown denied five charges of converting criminal property – totaling almost £35,000 – by allowing Palmer UK cheques to be paid into her business, Elvet Flowers, a florists shop in Durham City.

The couple also denied a joint charge of converting criminal property in the sum of £36,305 to buy a property in Whitburn, near Sunderland.

Prosecutors have asked for a fortnight to decide whether to pursue the joint charge, and will also consider whether to continue with the counts against Mrs Brown.

The couple, of The Green, Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, first appeared before magistrates in Hartlepool, in September last year.

The offences are said to have been committed between November 1995 and March 2007 when Brown worked for Palmer UK.

Simon Phillips, prosecuting, told the court yesterday that the investigation had been “painstaking”.

He said there was some dispute over £338,000 which Brown claims was used for the benefit of his employers, such as train tickets to London and flights to Philadelphia.

Mr Duff told the court: “He accepts these monies have been misappropriated by himself, but has always said some of that money was spent by him for the benefit of the company.”