Two Bradford men helped facilitate a conspiracy to defraud a bank, a court heard.

Raja Sarwar, 35, of Tern Street, Bradford, and George Allison, 64, of Duckworth Avenue, Girlington, Bradford, were alongside men who appeared at Leeds Crown Court.

Sarwar and three men, from Huddersfield, Ilford and London, admitted conspiracy to defraud. He was sentenced to 180 hours' work under a Community Punishment Order. Allison admitted furnishing false information and was given a two-year Community Rehabilitation Order. Both were ordered to pay £400 costs.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: "The defendants ... are the minnows. They facilitated the conspiracy but are not the main men." Prosecutor Richard Mansell said that whoever organised the conspiracy set up a bogus furniture company in Halifax as a vehicle to defraud a division of the Royal Bank of Scotland which provided firms with credit card facilities through a card-reading machine.

In August 2004 Allison sent an application for a machine on behalf of another person. The machine processed £153,000 worth of transactions in 24 hours. But the card company lost only £66,000 as the fraud had been detected.

Mr Mansell said Allison's role was to sign the documents while Sarwar received dishonest refunds of £3,800 which had not been recovered.