A BACUP policeman who was one of two officers who went off sick and raked in over £80,000 moonlighting as travelling businessmen was today behind bars.

Sgt Geoffrey Roberts and PC Howard Jones, both 46, deliberately prolonged the time they took off work so they could run a cottage industry as independent safety consultants.

Both men, who worked for Greater Manchester Police at the Divisional Traffic Unit in Oldham, claimed they were unfit to work for the force due to recurring neck and back problems.

But they clocked up hundreds of miles, travelling as far as Ireland, touting for lucrative business contracts.

The pair, who have a total of five police commendations between them, charged thousands of pounds as dangerous goods safety advisors, ensuring companies were complying with new EEC safety rules.

Roberts, of Cloughhead, Dean Road, Bacup, pleaded guilty to ten counts of furnishing false information and was jailed for 15 months.

Jones, of Leyton Drive, Bury, admitted four similar charges and was jailed for six months. An assets of crime hearing is due to heard later this year.

Passing sentence Judge Bernard Lever told them: "You have let down you colleagues who fight crime not commit it. You have cheated the public out of thousands of pounds."

Despite claiming to have back trouble, Roberts, who was described as a keep-fit fanatic, enjoyed a two week skiing holiday in Denver, Colorado, and was seen lifting a large suitcase into the boot of his Range Rover at Manchester Airport.

Descriptions of him given to police by those who met him during the course of his consultancy work included "sprightly" and "a picture of health." Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester. heard Jones and Roberts were both off sick initially with genuine health problems.

But they passed themselves off as retired police officers and worked for Independent Safety Services at first. They then formed their own business, Sargon, which counted NHS Trusts across the country as clients.

Earlier the court heard Roberts joined GMP as a cadet in 1973 before progressing to the post of a £35,000 pounds a year traffic patrol sergeant based at Oldham.

Suzanne Goddard, prosecuting, said: "Both of these men systematically defrauded the Greater Manchester Police by claiming statutory sick pay.

"Whereas in each case there may have been some genuine disability at the outset, the evidence reveals that for lengthy periods of time these officers were fit to work, as they demonstrated by successfully."

The men were arrested in January 2003.

The court heard Roberts had tried to commit suicide by drowning in the week running up to his sentence but he saved himself.

Defence counsel for Roberts, Robert Platts said his client had been genuinely injured at work in 1995 when his police vehicle was rammed.

Mr Platts said: "He has had an unblemished life as a police officer."

Miss Bernadette Baxter for Jones, who is now working as an HGV driver, said his appearance in court was a tragedy for himself and his family.