TWO men accused of fraud covered their tracks by creating a “sham” agreement, a jury heard.

Nigel Horn, 58, and Mark Woodbridge, 42, are on trial for conspiracy to defraud the shareholders of the software firm Torex Retail.

Woodbridge, of Mill Farm, Brookhampton, Kineton, Warwickshire, who was group financial accountant, is accused of three charges of false accounting in 2006, between May 1 and August 15.

He also faces two charges of conspiracy to defraud between May 1, 2006, and January 26, 2007.

Horn, of The Avenue, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, then the firm’s legal director, is also charged with conspiracy to defraud between November 1, 2006, and January 26, 2007.

Gibson Grenfell, prosecuting, said that after the bosses of Torex, which had offices in Banbury and Witney, inflated the figures in the firm’s 2006 interim financial statement, they had to cover their tracks.

He told the jury a “variation agreement” was drawn up to explain why £2.5m had been entered in the statement but never received.

Mr Gibson said this was “a sham” designed to stop accountants BDO from realising something was not right.

The company’s former chief executive Christopher Moore and former chairman Robert Loosemoore have already admitted charges of conspiracy to defraud.

The trial continues.