THE man behind an alleged charity scam sent a worker out in a dog costume to fleece shoppers in supermarkets, a court heard yesterday.

Darren Hunter, 37, told the collector to wear the old English sheepdog costume at the entrances of the shops as he rattled his tins for a cancer charity, Teesside Crown Court was told.

However, the jury in the trial against Mr Hunter was discharged yesterday after he applied to call as a witness a senior bank official in London.

A fresh trial will begin in November.

Earlier, the court was told the man wearing the dog costume, Michael Stephenson, was paid £30 a day in 50p and £1 coins straight from the tins - against the Cancer Research Campaign's strict rule that they should not be opened.

The rest of the money went into Mr Hunter's pockets, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting.

Mr Hunter contacted the charity in November 2001 and North-East fundraising organiser Rebecca Laverick issued him with tins and posters, but he was arrested in January 2002 after they failed to receive a penny.

When the Cancer Research Campaign dumped Mr Hunter, he went out with tins labelled The Prevention of Cancer Research Trust Campaign.

Police arrested him outside a Somerfield supermarket, in Yarm, near Stockton, on what Stephenson said was their first outing for the trust.

Mr Dodds told the court: "Mr Hunter told the Cancer Research Campaign that it was his intention to collect £100,000 but they never received a penny.

"The tins should have been returned unopened, but he announced on one occasion that he had collected £838, which meant he had emptied them himself.

"Mr Stephenson told police he had been collecting between £50 and £70 a day.

"People entering and leaving supermarkets who saw someone dressed as a fluffy dog collecting with a tin for cancer research, assumed that was where the money was going, but the prosecution says it ended up in the defendant's back pocket."

Mr Hunter also collected outside a store in Peterlee, east Durham, in December 2001 dressed as Santa Claus.

He told the manager a cheque for £1,000 would be presented to cancer research, who asked him to arrange newspaper coverage. However, the presentation did not materialise, said Mr Dodds.

Mr Hunter, who denied dishonesty, represented himself in court. The dog costume, complete with a trailing tongue, was presented as an exhibit by the prosecution.

Mr Hunter, of Windsor Road, Stockton, pleaded not guilty to theft of an unknown amount of cash from the Cancer Research Campaign, between November 25, 2001, and January 20, 2002.