A TAXI operator failed to pass on money deducted from drivers' pay to the Inland Revenue, a court heard.

John David Newton, and his wife, Allison, who assisted him in the fraud, are having to re-mortgage their house to raise the funds to pay back the outstanding money.

Durham Crown Court heard that there was an estimated £30,257 shortfall in the amount which should have been paid in income tax and National Insurance contributions from seven employees of A2B Taxis, of Chester-le-Street.

But with interest, the amount owed to HM Revenue and Customs is rising by the week, and is now said to be in the region of £36,250.

The couple, of Courtney Drive, Perkinsville, near Chester-le-Street, both admitted a charge of cheating the public revenue, with intent to defraud HM Customs and Revenue of income tax and National Insurance contributions, at a previous hearing.

It takes in a period between November 1, 2001, and May 18, 2005, when they were said to have purported, in returns to the Revenue, that the money had been paid.

Newton, 47, and his 43-year-old wife were to have been sentenced when they returned to court yesterday.

But their barrister, Paul Abrahams, asked for a further short adjournment to allow them to complete the re-mortgaging of their home, to enable them to pay back the money.

"Due to delays, the surveyors' completion hasn't taken place, and the cautious estimate is within two weeks," he said.

"The amount owed is rising by the hearing. They are people of previous good character, and it's in their interest to have it repaid before they are sentenced.

"It's causing them great mental hardship and torment to keep coming to court and go away with the axe still hanging over them."

Judge Peter Bowers agreed to adjourn the hearing and bailed the Newtons to return for sentence, on March 23.