Hinchliffe spared jail after guilty plea

Stephen Hinchliffe, the Sheffield entrepreneur who was released from prison earlier this year after being found guilty of bribing a bank official, was told by a judge yesterday that he is likely to receive a suspended sentence to avoid a second expensive trial.

Hinchliffe, 53, achieved notoriety in the mid-1990s for building up the Facia retail chain that included high street names such as Saxone, Sock Shop and Freeman Hardy Willis. The ramshackle group collapsed in 1996 and in February 2001 Hinchliffe was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud and bribing a banker at the United Mizrahi Bank. This was later reduced on appeal to four years, though he only served two years of his term.

Yesterday Judge Jeremy Roberts said he would give Hinchliffe a suspended sentence in exchange for a guilty plea to separate charges of conspiracy to defraud, 12 counts of false accounting and eight counts of theft. Hinchliffe admitted personal gain of £1m.

Christopher Harrison, Facia's former finance director, made a similar plea to the same charges. The pair have been remanded on bail for sentencing on 23 April.

The judge said: "He [Hinchliffe] has already been ruined by the consequences of his business practice. He has been under continual litigation for seven years, and disqualified from being a company director for seven years.

"It leaves the question is there any purpose to be served in requiring Hinchliffe to go back to prison for something between four and six months." The cost of a fresh trial would fall on the public as both men have been declared bankrupt.

Andrew Baillie QC for the Serious Fraud Office, which carried out the investigation that led to the trial, said the prosecution may appeal if Hinchliffe is given an "unduly lenient" sentence. Mr Baillie said: "Hinchliffe received a benefit of not less than £1.75m in a breach of trust showing some ingenuity and sophistication. The sum I've mentioned was put to Hinchliffe's personal use."

Hinchliffe was once a director of Sheffield United Football Club and later vice president of Hull City.