GEORGE REYNOLDS admitted under oath yesterday that he paid money from his ailing business into Darlington Football Club - because he considered the company to be his bank account.

The former Quakers chairman was grilled at Teesside County Court about his involvement in the collapse of George Reynolds UK (GRUK).

The County Durham firm went into voluntary liquidation with debts of £4.7m in October 2002.

Yesterday's public examination of its finances was called by the Official Receiver to help liquidators Deloitte and Touche recoup some money for creditors.

Mr Reynolds, 66, told the court he did not have a head for figures or dates and could not remember making key decisions while in charge of GRUK. And he revealed that he regularly signed off accounts for the firm without reading them.

The hearing heard that according to company accounts:

* A loan of between £4m and £6m from GRUK to Darlington Football Club was written off by GRUK in April 2001. Mr Reynolds said he was not involved in writing it off.

* Shares in Darlington Football Club bought by GRUK for hundreds of thousands of pounds were later transferred to Mr Reynolds, apparently for £1. Mr Reynolds denied the figure, saying he would consult his chequebook stubs.

* Cars, including a Rolls Royce and a Mercedes, were bought by GRUK but retained by Mr Reynolds when GRUK's chipboard business was sold to Vertex in 2002.

Anthony de Garr Robinson, the barrister representing Deloitte and Touche, asked Mr Reynolds if he had taken the view that because he had put money into GRUK he was entitled to take it back out.

"I used the company as my own account," admitted Mr Reynolds.

Mr de Garr Robinson said: "As a matter of law a company is a separate person."

Mr Reynolds replied: "I would agree with you there. We hadn't done it right on the paperwork.

"We took advice but it's not always been right."

Mr de Garr Robinson asked Mr Reynolds to explain why the loan to the Quakers had been written off on April 30, 2001 - when money was being loaned out to the club the day before.

"Why was the debt, whether it was £6m or £4m or what it was, why was the debt written off?"

"I just don't know," replied Mr Reynolds. "The fact is I don't understand where you are coming from. You have got me confused with it."

Asked about GRUK's accounts for the year ending April 2002, Mr Reynolds said: "I would probably have seen them but I wouldn't have went through them."

The hearing was told of a recycling firm, Just Wood, in which Mr Reynolds had a 50 per stake.

Mr de Garr Robinson said that accounts showed the company had supplied GRUK with £158 worth of recycled wood - but GRUK had given it almost £1m.

At the start of the examination, Mr Reynolds declared himself "mentally deficient". And several times he contradicted himself.

Of himself and GRUK's other directors he said: "We have done nothing wrong. I'll admit we have done something wrong. We haven't done it right, the things we have done wrong."

The hearing continues.