THE former managing director of a bus firm has been jailed for six years for making inflated claims about concessionary fare passenger numbers to a county council as part of a huge fiddle.

John David Hulme, known as David, had denied fraud and false accounting between July 2011 and December 2012 at Llanberis.

The prosecution said the Padarn Bus scam had involved £495,857 at the point when the defendant, 55, of Glan Seiont, Caernarfon, was suspended.

The concessionary fare scheme, which enables pensioners and some other passengers to travel free of charge in Wales, is funded by the Welsh Government and operated by the 22 Welsh councils.

Hulme was found guilty by a Caernarfon crown court jury. Padarn Bus operations director Darren Price, 46, of Llanrug, Caernarfon, who admitted false accounting covering the period after Hulme was suspended and involving £318,798, was jailed for two years and three months.

The court had heard how the company claimed £814,655 more than it was due from Gwynedd council for concessionary fare passengers.

“He (Hulme), as managing director, had a central role in relation to the finances of the company from the outset,” prosecuting barrister Matthew Dunford declared.

The company had a fleet of 43 buses and 84 staff but went bust owing more than £2 million.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC told Hulme he had devised a fraudulent scheme. He said: “You stood to gain by avoiding what eventually became inevitable, that the company went into liquidation. Any fraud of this magnitude is serious.”

The judge said it was a fraud against public funds. An aggravating feature was that the father-of-eight sought to blame a junior employee Louise Price.

Judge Hughes told Darren Price: “When David Hulme left the company you knew the method of making concessionary fare claims was quite false. You were in a similar position to Mr Hulme in you had your own interests in mind when you decided to continue the fraud.”

To his credit Price made a “clean breast” of things to an accountant working as a consultant for the firm.

Both defendants were banned from being company directors for six years.

Matthew Curtis, counsel for Hulme, said: “The offending occurred in order to keep the company afloat.

This is a fraud which was carried out to prevent the company from having an early demise owing to financial complications.”

Defence barrister John Wyn Williams, for Darren Price, told the judge: ”I suspect, had it not been for the involvement of Mr Hulme, Mr Price wouldn’t be standing before you.” He was a qualified mechanic and drove a bus. Mr Wyn Williams said Price had “rather foolishly buried his head in the sand” and wished to apologise to former staff and taxpayers.

“He’s extremely sorry for what he’s done,” the lawyer added.

Welcoming the sentence, Senior Investigating Officer Supt Iestyn Davies at Caernarfon Police Station said: “North Wales Police welcome the sentences passed today and hopes it sends a clear message out that North Wales Police and the CPS will fully investigate offences of this nature and ensure offenders are brought to justice.

"I would also like to pay tribute to those witnesses who came forward and assisted this investigation as well as thanking the Investigating Officers and CPS Prosecution Team for their diligence in bringing this case to a successful conclusion.”