Up to 20 small businesses in the West Midlands were conned out of cash in a scam that netted almost £200,000 for a father and his two sons from the Black Country.

Firms handed over cheques to companies set up by the family team, believing that they were advance fees for help to get government loans. But the fraudsters took the cash and did no work, Worcester Crown Court heard.

The father, Geoffrey Stevens, aged 68, of Moore Crescent, Oldbury, was jailed for six years — but police are now searching for him as did not turn up in court for sentencing.

His son, George, aged 27, who has changed his surname to Windsor, now of Down Hatherley, Gloucestershire, but formerly of Oldbury, was jailed for two and a half years.

Sentence was adjourned at the request of the defence on another son, Deen Stevens, aged 32, of Sawbridge Road, Grandborough, Rugby, who also used to live in Oldbury. He was granted bail.

Geoffrey Stevens’s barrister, David Mason, said Stevens had been given bail to attend a hospital appointment but no-one had been able to contact him since.

He was last seen at his mother’s address in Oldbury and had discussed the possibility of “ending it all.”

The three men had been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud. Geoffrey and Deen Stevens set up three companies operating from Causeway Green Road, Oldbury, and High Street, Amblecote, Stourbridge.

It is estimated Geoffrey and Deen Stevens creamed off £150,000, while George Windsor, who set up his own company, Principal Finance, in Cheltenham, pocketed £44,000.

West Mercia Police economic crime unit investigated after a genuine company, Venture Finance plc in London, received complaints about a firm with a similar name.

Detectives discovered that more than 130 firms had been conned across the country.