Cruel fraudsters who heartlessly conned multiple victims out of around £30,000 have started sentences behind bars.

Tears were shed when a packed public gallery watched on as Teesside Crown Court heard how Christine Fearns, 52, and Paul Normington, 55, had conned friends and acquaintances out of vast sums of money.

The pair had callously swindled their victims as their own financial worries spiralled out of control, heaping misery onto others.

They had often used the guise of an inheritance they claimed Fearns was due from the USA, which was used as a means to promise repayments. But it was ultimately a swizz.

Fearns even created false correspondence from the Teesside courts department and produced a fraudulent document claiming to be from a reputable solicitor's firm to give credence to their scam.

Harrowing statements read out by prosecutor Jonathan Walker on Friday outlined the devastating impact the duo's actions had on their victims.

'My life has not been the same since they did this to us'

The first victims of Fearns and Normington, a couple, were conned out of just short of £4,000, which left them in significant hardship as one of the victims had surgery at a cost of £22,000 around the same time.

A statement described how she had lost both of her parents within a fortnight of each other and the stress of the fraud gave her sleepless nights and anxiety, "I have struggled to work since," she said.

"My life has not been the same since they did this to us," the statement added.

She described regularly loaning them money to help them keep bailiffs away and they endured extreme stress after agreeing to act as guarantors on an Amigo loan of about £3,000.

Fearns and Normington began missing repayments, heaping stress on their victims. "It became extremely stressful and they often didn't respond to our texts and would blank us," the statement added.

£24,000 fraud on another couple

Fearns and Normington conned another couple out of a shocking £24,000 that saw the victims rack up thousands of pounds of debt in a loan, credit cards and by borrowing from relatives.

The couple said the crime had a "huge effect" on them.

As well as having to borrow money from family and friends, they lost their savings for their wedding.

Another two victims lost £250 and £280 after being conned. The final victim was defrauded by Fearns - she was charged with four counts of fraud by false representation, Normington three.

Both pleaded guilty to the offences before a trial was set to take place.

Normington was previously convicted of fraud in 2015 after he stole £25,000 from his employer and customer friends, while working as a sales manager at builders merchants Joseph Parr Ltd in Stockton.

He was given a suspended jail sentence - which was activated in part on Friday - after he pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud.

'Desperately sorry, embarrassed and thoroughly ashamed'

Chris Morrison, defending Fearns, argued that she expressed remorse, had a low risk of reoffending and that she suffers from medical problems including depression and limited mobility.

Mr Morrison said her offending had been brought about owing to pressure from creditors and bailiffs.

"This was, as far as she was concerned, more a case of trying to keep the wolf from the door," he said.

The sentencing was heard at Teesside Crown Court.

Asking the judge to be lenient in the sentence, he added: "She's desperately sorry, embarrassed and thoroughly ashamed to be where she is today."

Duncan McReddie, defending Normington, said that his client had lived a "normal, happy and industrious life" until his divorce, after which point "his financial circumstances got beyond his control."

Speaking about his previous conviction Mr McReddie said: "Like many offences of this type, it didn't start as an intent to defraud the company."

He added: "It wasn't fraudulent from the outset."

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Mr McReddie said that the same was true of the matters before the court on Friday.

He claimed that his client had initially believed the story about the Fearns' inheritance from a relative in the USA to be true and that he did not know about the forged court and solicitor's papers when they were first used.

Years behind bars

Sentencing them, judge Stephen Ashurst said: "This is a case where you have acted very much as a team and choosing to solve your own personal financial problems by defrauding friends and acquaintances who trusted you."

He said that count two on the indictment - the £24,000 fraud - had "an extremely unpleasant overtone."

He told Normington that he would be activating his 12 month suspended sentence, albeit reduced to six months, owing to the fact he completed all the unpaid work he was previously sentenced to.

Fearns, of Craig Street, Darlington, who had no previous convictions, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Normington, also of Craig Street, was handed three years and three months behind bars.

No compensation order to recover the victim's lost money was made owing to pair's lack of assets.