A BUSINESSMAN who stole thousands of pounds of electricity by bypassing his meter for almost ten years has been warned he faces jail.

Guest house boss Stephen Hodgin was told by a judge to find almost £20,000 in a month to pay his debts - or return to court prepared to go to prison.

Judge John Walford said the only way the 46-year-old could avoid jail was for him to repay the electricity company £9,700, pay a similar amount in a financial penalty and £992 court costs.

Hodgin, of Arthur Street, Redcar, east Cleveland, was told to visit his bank or realise some of his assets before returning to Teesside Crown Court next month.

The court heard yesterday that he had a switch in his bedroom to control the electricity supply to the Ocean View guest house, in Redcar.

Investigators from npower, who became suspicious because the 12-room bed and breakfast used only five units of electricity a day, found the supply had been tapped into and the meter bypassed.

Graeme Gaston, prosecuting, said Hodgin was arrested last September but denied any knowledge of the switch. He only pleaded guilty when he was confronted with the evidence.

His barrister, Gavin Doig, urged the judge to consider a community penalty because he had already suffered financially since the closure of his business, and through losing his good name.

Mr Doig said: "It will allow him to restart his business, and pay back some of the money."

But the judge said: "A community punishment order would not fit the crime here. Clearly, he should go to prison. There is no question of that.

"It is just a question of whether, in the circumstances, almost on expedient grounds, bearing in mind the pressure on prison places, I should take a wholly exceptionally lenient course with this man.

"I would only consider doing that if the money is paid back immediately. It may be that the only answer is that he has to liquidate his property assets in order to repay what he owes by his dishonesty.

"The only sensible basis upon which I could not send him to prison is if he was to repay the money he has stolen, and also meets a financial penalty of a practically equivalent amount.

He told Hodgin: "For this sort of calculated dishonesty involving huge sums of money, a prison sentence is what I should be passing, but you have heard what I have said.

"I am prepared to give you some sort of chance, but on stark conditions."