TWO businessmen used an army of cleaners in an elaborate benefit fraud.

Police codenamed the two-year investigation that caught Philip Rowland and David Wrightson Operation Hilda, after Coronation Street cleaning lady Hilda Ogden.

National Cleaning Systems, based on Tyneside, made £1.6m between 1999 and 2003. But workers were also helping the company bosses defraud the Government of £272,000.

National Cleaning Systems had contracts to clean caravans at five holiday centres in the region.

They used cleaners who earned £27 for a 12-hour day.

Officials discovered that company chiefs were hiring employees who were claiming unemployment benefits. Bogus names were used to help the workers avoid paying tax and National Insurance.

Some had used up to seven aliases and had been employed since 1997.

A jury found director Rowland, 50, of Wensleydale, Wallsend, North Tyneside, guilty of conspiracy to defraud the Department for Work and Pensions at the end of a two-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

Fellow director Wrightson, 58, of Burnhope Road, Barmston Village, Washington, Wearside, and senior supervisor Barbara Keelan, 45, of Carville Gardens, Wallsend, both admitted the conspiracy charge and gave evidence for the prosecution during Rowland's trial.

Rowland was bailed and will be sentenced with Wrightson and Keelan on April 19.

Roger Birch, prosecuting, said the defendants will also face confiscation proceedings.

Operation Hilda was launched in June 2003 after concerns were raised about the firm's cleaning contracts.

The company was identified as Stonehills (1995) Limited, trading as National Cleaning Systems Limited, based at Stonehills, Gateshead.

To date, 69 employees of the company have been brought to court on charges involving working while claiming benefit. All pleaded guilty.

Penalties imposed included fines, community punishment orders, a curfew and a ten-month jail sentence in one case.