THE daughter and son-in-law of crooked businesswoman Mary Blair have told of their "shellshock" at a judge's decision to confiscate their home.

Claire Bartlett, 30, and husband Graham, 37, will have nowhere to live in a fortnight when their house is sold to repay the victims of Blair's five-year thieving spree at a North-East car dealership.

A hearing at Teesside Crown Court heard that the deposit for the couple's home in Chapelhope Close, Darlington, was provided by Blair, who was jailed for five years in January for stealing more than £800,000.

Mrs Bartlett also paid back part of the mortgage with her salary from Manhattan House, the bridalwear shop she ran with her mother, who used stolen money to keep it afloat.

The couple offered to pay the victims at PMB Motors and South Cleveland Garages £37,000, double the deposit and the mortgage repayments to reflect the doubling of the property's value.

But Judge John Walford ruled that the entire equity in the house - £91,450 - should be forfeit to the Crown.

Mr Bartlett, who was cleared by a jury of laundering some of Blair's stolen cash, said: "I am totally shellshocked at the final outcome.

"Even though both Claire and I are innocent victims, it seems as though we have been punished as though we had committed and been found guilty of the crimes Mary performed.

"Our human rights have been totally ignored to allow us to become homeless and in so much debt."

The couple owe tens of thousands of pounds because of legal fees and loans taken out for home improvements.

Mrs Bartlett, a retail manager, said: "I have worked for the last ten years and paid my mortgage, and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. People point the finger at me, but I did nothing wrong."

Mr Bartlett, a sales manager, paid the mortgage for two years on the house, which is in his wife's name, and is applying to the High Court to have an interest in it declared.

He said: "Mary took full advantage of Claire's vulnerabilities and this has been the end result.

"The last 18 months have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Now the future looks bleak, to say the least."

Judge Walford said one of the "unpalatable facts of the case" was that innocent victims would lose their homes.

But he added: "What I can't overlook is that over half-a-million pounds of someone else's money kept Manhattan House going."

Blair's victims will recoup only £170,030 of the £819,200 she admitted stealing