A former North Yorkshire businessman has admitted he made his ex-friend and trusted financial adviser bankrupt.

Edward Hickson, aged 72, agreed he also sued Peter Barlow in two court cases for a total of £450,000 which he claimed the Copmanthorpe man owed him.

The former Hazelwood Foods director told Leeds Crown Court he had been a fool in his dealings with Barlow, and claimed he had signed many documents without reading them.

Barlow, 57, of Tadcaster Road, Copmanthorpe, denies 11 charges of theft, three of them alleging that he stole a total of more than £400,000 from Mr Hickson.

Mr Hickson agreed with the suggestion of defence counsel Peter Collier, QC, that he made Barlow bankrupt so he could get some money.

He said he had been staggered to discover in 1994 he was a joint holder of a York TSB bank account through which more than £500,000 of his money had passed.

He claimed he had been totally unaware at the time that all the money had gone into the personal account of the other joint holder of the TSB account, Barlow. He claimed that he, Mr Hickson, had received less than half of the money.

It was alleged that the half million pounds came from the cashing of some of Mr Hickson's life insurance policies.

Mr Hickson said he contacted the TSB bank, which he had never visited, after checks of his share dealings revealed that £13,000 was missing.

After talking to his solicitors, he had decided to check what had happened to his life insurance policies.

He said he was staggered to discover how much the policies had realised, and could not believe that he was the holder of a joint account, but agreed he must have signed a document applying to open a TSB account.

He claimed he could not remember doing so, and agreed with his counsel, Andrew Dallas, that the application form did not indicate it was for a joint account.

Mr Hickson, an epileptic who alleges he has an appalling memory and suffers from absences of mind, claimed he had not realised what he was doing when he apparently signed a document agreeing to be a company director.

"I signed lots of papers as Peter Barlow leafed them over to me, one after another, without reading them," he said.

Mr Collier asked him: "You are no fool, are you?" Mr Hickson replied: "I think I have been."

He alleged that the only reason he signed various documents was because Barlow asked him to, and for no other reason.

The trial continues.

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