FAILING to keep proper business records has landed a Swindon businessman with £2,500 costs.

Leonard Baldwin, 53, was also banned from being a company director for three years following the case, which related to his scrap metal company.

Don Tait, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that the matters related to the collapse Baldwin's firm, South West Stainless in spring 2000.

He said Baldwin, of The Hillocks, Lyneham, was the sole director of the firm, which went into voluntary liquidation in May 2001.

But when the administrator looked through the books he found £10,000 missing from the accounts.

Mr Tait said that Baldwin's firm had tendered for a job to remove the internal fittings of a Mothercare store in Wellingborough, Northants.

In March 2000, South West Stainless made a £10,000 stage payment to contractors, Rollers but a promised second cheque never arrived, the court heard.

The companies fell out and the workers walked off site in April and all work ceased at the shop.

When an administrator looked through the firm's cashbook he found nine payments marked Rollers between April and July 2000, totalling £10,000.

Mr Tait said that the contractors had not received the money, despite some of the chequebook stubs being endorsed Rollers.

However, others were not. One was marked "director's loan" and others had other names on them.

When Baldwin was questioned by the Department Of Trade And Industry investigators he accepted that seven of the nine were false.

And when the cheques were recovered it was found that five had been made out to cash and one to the internet bank Egg.

On the seventh the payee was indecipherable, though Baldwin later said it had been made out to his mother.

Bridget Petheridge, defending, said her client was not a sophisticated man or a businessman of high order. She said he was now working on a self-employed basis rather than as a company and earning £3,000 to £3,600 a month.

She said he had outgoings of £3,300 a month, half of which went on mortgage payments.

Passing sentence Recorder William Andreae-Jones QC said "At last this is coming to an end and you must be glad it is.

"I am going to impose a conditional discharge for 12 months. That means if you keep out of trouble for that time you will hear no more about this."

Accurate records are essential for all businesses. By law, businesses must keep business records for at least five years and ten months after the end of the tax year the records relate to.

Basic records should include a record of all sales and invoices issued, all business purchases and expenses, details of any amounts you personally pay into or take from the business and copies of bank statements.