A ROGUE accountant who put a family firm's future in jeopardy after helping himself to more than £62,000 was today starting a 27-month jail term.

And the owner of the company has revealed how he went without pay for a year to stop the business collapsing unaware that his employee was causing the financial crisis.

Andrew Shapland, 51, of Leigh Park, Hapton, was jailed after admitting 22 thefts, committed between 1998 and 2004.

Burnley Crown Court heard that Shapland began stealing from Pendle Frozen Foods Ltd, on the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate, Nelson, within months of being convicted of theft from a local car dealership where he had previously worked.

His thefts involved forged cheques and creating unauthorised transactions using the BACS system for putting wages into bank accounts.

Judge Beverley Lunt said Shapland would have continued stealing had Customs and Excise not announced plans for a spot check of paperwork.

After the case, Anthony Platt, who founded the firm with sons Andrew and Matthew 21 years ago, said: "He has shown no remorse to us for what he did.

"I went without pay for a year to help keep the business afloat.

"If he had kept going, then we would be out of business by now.

"The alternative to me going without pay was to make people redundant. We had to scrap expansion plans too.

"Staff went without pay rises for two years because we thought we were losing money. Almost as soon as he left, things got better and the company is in good shape now.

"But at no time has he said he was sorry to us. We've never found a lot of the paperwork he took from us"

Father-of-one Shapland's solicitor said that Shapland felt great shame about what he had done.' Burnley Crown Court heard that Shapland, who at the time ran Abacus Accoutancy and Management Services at Lomeshaye Business Village, lied about his qualifications, claiming to be a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and overcharged for his work.

Judge Lunt was told that the company managed to keep afloat by selling other assets but that director Anthony Platt's health had been affected by Shapland turning back to crime. Sentencing, she told Shapland he stole not from a multi-national organisation but a modest, family owned business.

For the 1998 offence Shapland had been given the maximum community service sentence.

He told his new employer the offence had been a simple misuderstanding.

Mr Platt said: "I thought we should give him a second chance.

"That was a big mistake and it nearly cost us our business.

"I had begun looking into some things which didn't seem right and he suddenly said he didn't want to work for us any more."

He left in January 2004, the court heard, and soon more discrepancies were found.