A Silsden accountant who cost investors almost £430,000 by getting them to put money into a bogus property scheme has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Judge Roger Scott told 64-year-old John Rourke -- who had no accountancy qualifications -- that he was a man to whom lies came very easily and the history of his case showed that he had done everything in his power to avoid answering to the courts for what he had done.

"You have already been to prison for 20 days and 120 days for contempt of Court proceedings," noted Judge Scott.

"There are three counts of perverting the course of justice where, in colloquial language, you tried to nobble the prosecution witnesses before the authorities got to them."

Rourke, of Colne, Lancashire, pleaded guilty in March to a series of offences relating to "misleading, false or deceptive statements" which he admitted making recklessly.

He also admitted unlawfully accepting unauthorised deposits from investors during a period between January 1998 and March 2001, forgery and doing acts tending or intended to pervert the course of justice.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Rourke was a highly regarded accountant who had run his own Silsden-based firm since 1983, but he had left behind a trail of bitter and angry investors.

At a previous hearing, prosecutor Jeremy Barnett explained how Rourke had told clients about the property scheme which he said was a blue-chip, no-risk investment.

He claimed that doctors, bank managers and even a judge were involved in a syndicate which bought repossessed properties and then sold them on for a profit.

But Mr Barnett said the scheme never existed and Rourke used the money he received to support his own business and pay off increasing debts.

"As a professional man, John Rourke took advantage of information given to him by reason of his accountancy practice and acted with wholesale disregard for his clients -- some of whom trusted him for many years, often with their entire savings," said Mr Barnett.

When the Financial Services Authority (FSA) launched an inquiry into Rourke's activities, it discovered that he had kept no records and even tried to get some investors to conceal information about their deposits.

In March 2001 the FSA took out a civil injunction to stop him taking further deposits and freeze his assets, but breaches of that order had led to him being jailed twice.

The court heard in March how the losses had affected various investors, including a chartered accountant and a magistrate.

One couple had been forced to return to work after selling their business and planning to retire, while another man was now homeless and bankrupt.

Rourke maintained that someone else had been behind the property scheme, but Judge Scott rejected suggestions that he was naive and stupid.

"I think you are a rogue," he told Rourke. "A plausible rogue. A man to whom lies come very, very easily.

"The Crown's opening to me some weeks ago indicated to me what I know very well, that greed is rife in the community and your clients, who you knew very well, were taken for a ride by you.

"How anyone could accept what they were told about huge returns in a short space of time I simply don't know. They all thought that it was a wonderful scheme that was being put forward to them.

"The situation is that you regard yourself as almost a victim here. You don't regard yourself as a smooth-tongued rogue but I do."

Barrister David Kelly, for Rourke, said when he came out of prison he would face an uncertain future, with no home, no business and without the high esteem and reputation he previously held.

He confirmed that Rourke was now a bankrupt but said he still intended to do the best he could to repay all the investors their money.

John Lohan, chairman of Silsden Business Watch, said after the hearing that Rourke had traded as an accountant in Silsden for at least 20 years.

He said: "I have great sympathy with the people who have suffered a loss, but I am surprised that John has got involved in something like this because in my dealing with him he was always helpful -- a really nice person."

Many business people in the town had been his clients and some had become close friends. As a result many were extremely shocked by what had happened.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants said the case had underlined the importance of checking a person's qualifications before employing their services as an accountant.

A spokesman told the Keighley News: "Unlike doctors, solicitors and other professions, there is unfortunately no protection in law for the title 'accountant' and any person can, in theory, call themselves an accountant.

"This has long been a bugbear with qualified, professional accountants. Many people only realise they have chosen the wrong accountant when something does go wrong."