A MAN who gave evidence at the trial of a Real IRA bombing gang broke down in tears after avoiding going to jail yesterday for his part in a multi-million pound fuel scam.

But his two North-East accomplices were jailed after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

Profits from the scam to "wash" duty-free red diesel and sell it in on were used to fund terrorist activities, but the gang was rounded up after a raid by North-East Customs officers on a West Yorkshire farm in November 2001.

Earlier this year, five members of the Real IRA cell were jailed for a car-bombing campaign in London and Birmingham, but the link between the diesel scam and the terrorists has only just been made public.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Alan Aggett, 42, of Ashby, Scunthorpe, earned £500-a-week as a shift worker in the washing plant at Manor House Farm, West Ardsley, near Leeds, but following the Customs raid he gave evidence against the terrorists at the Old Bailey. It earned him a 15-month jail sentence suspended for two years.

The red diesel, which is intended for agricultural and road construction use only, was taken to the farm from County Durham, processed and then distributed in the UK. Two of the terrorists worked at the washing plant and an adjoining farm was used as their operations base.

Aggett, as well as haulier Robert Surtees, 46, and driver Peter Brown, 53, all admitted being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty. Neither knew where the profits were going.

Judge Shaun Spencer jailed Surtees, of Badminton Grove, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, for two years and Brown, of Wynyard Road, Hartlepool, for nine months.

A fourth man, Martin Simpson, 33, of Butterknowle, County Durham, had the same charge against him left on the file at an earlier hearing after he offered to pay £15,000 to the Treasury.

Aggett escaped prison because he helped police put the terrorists behind bars.

Judge Spencer made confiscation orders against the men.

Surtees, who was getting 1p per litre for the red diesel he supplied as well as commission for cashing cheques, was ordered to pay £13,110, Brown will have to pay £3,000 and Aggett £8,000