A CONMAN who tried to hoodwink a judge in a bid to get out of handing over the spoils of his crimes was today starting his second 12-month jail term.

Burnley Crown Court heard former company director Neil Demaline, who netted more than £82,000 from a string of deceptions, told fib after fib over the sale and repossession of his Sefton Street home in Brierfield, his only asset.

He even used different solicitors to try and fool the court, knowing a confiscation hearing was looming.

The court was told Demaline had agreed to sell his house to his current bosses for just over half of what it was worth.

The money was just enough to clear his debts, but left him with no money and no realisable assets.

Last September the defendant was sent to prison for a year after admitting nine deception-related charges.

Demaline, who formerly worked at R E Lowther Motorcycles Ltd, Brierfield, had applied for loans for motorcyles which did not exist and was said to have turned to crime to keep the ailing company afloat. The firm later went bust.

Yesterday, Judge Beverley Lunt, who had been the target of Demaline's double deceipt, branded him dishonest and devious and said he had tried to play the sytem and she had nearly fallen for it.

The judge told the defendant, currently employed by the Fireplace Warehouse, Burnley, and said to have debts of almost £100,000: "You have told blatant lies to mislead the court and that strikes at the heart of the judicial system."

Demaline, 38, had admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice between last April and September.

He had also pleaded guilty to obtaining a money transfer by deception in 2003, about the same time as the other deceptions, when he got more than £9,000 by falsely claiming he earned more than £33,000 a year when he actually drew about £20,000.

The judge made a confiscation order for £19,146.68 and gave the defendant six months to pay up, or face 11 months in custody.

The court heard how days before Demaline was due to be sentenced for the deceptions last September 27, he asked the hearing be adjourned claiming his house was about to be repossessed and he had nowhere to go. Judge Lunt was told the request was not a delaying tactic, but it turned out to be a pack of lies.

There had been a repossession hearing, but it was a mistake and when Demaline instructed his lawyer he knew he was not about to be thrown out onto the streets.

By September 27, the court heard, Demaline claimed his home was going to be bought by a company which specialised in buying people out and he could get £53,000 by selling it, but it was another lie and the court later discovered he had fixed a low price to try and avoid a confiscation hearing.

Philip Holden, defending, claimed Demaline had just wanted to keep a roof over his head.

He feared the property being repossessed and was in a terrible financial position.

The barrister told the court: "This was a very stupid act by a desperate man in very unusual and exceptional circumstances."

Mr Holden said Demaline, whose wife was an Asda home shopping adviser, owed about £90,000.

The couple had now found a house to rent in Earby.