Accountant 'stole from farmers'

Thomas Alder was a trusted friend to many

A group of farmers in County Durham face financial ruin after trusting a family friend with the compensation they received after the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Accountant Thomas Alder, 54, from Barnard Castle in County Durham, was jailed for five years at Teesside County Court on Tuesday.

He admitting stealing nearly £700,000 that the farmers had given him to invest.

Alder had promised the farmers their money would be invested in a foreign trust.

It later transpired Alder had been stripped of his Chartered accountancy status.

'Great respect'

The judge said Alder had targeted the vulnerable, at a time when farmers' livelihoods were left reeling from the effects of the epidemic.

Steve Gibson, whose family lost money, said: "To be realistic I think it was a fair sentence. I'm reasonably happy with it.

"It is shocking, but we have just got to get on with it. I'm not going to let him ruin our lives any more than he already has."

Farmer Andrew Gibson, from West Auckland, had lost 300 cattle during the 2001 epidemic.

He had known Alder for around 25 years and entrusted him with his £100,000 compensation.

Mr Gibson said: "I was absolutely devastated, I can't put words to it.

"I was emotionally let down, personally let down... I just felt physically sick.

"My father and him went back 25 years, he was somebody my father always advised us to turn to for advice. He was somebody greatly respected throughout the family and by most of his other clients."