Two men were charged in Belfast yesterday in connection with a £2 million sterling (€2.88 million) fraud involving Shorts aerospace company.

In the dock at the Magistrates Court were Mr Dennis Ernest Clarke, (43), from Greenvale Park View, Antrim, and Mr William Spiers Black, (47), from Lissane Road, Saintfield, Co Down.

They were charged with conspiring together to defraud Shorts by making false claims for payment of invoices submitted by a London company, MPI Aviation Ltd. Mr Clarke also faced a charge of money laundering by allegedly using the proceeds of criminal conduct to open bank accounts in Antrim to avoid prosecution under the Proceeds of Crime legislation.

An inspector from the PSNI's Financial Investigation Unit told the court the case involved approximately £2 million.

The charges relate to invoices for hours worked by sub contractors of Shorts's parent company, Bombardier, which were submitted to MPI Aviation and then forwarded to Shorts for payment.

The charges cover a two-year period and during that time detectives have seized documents in London and at Bombardier's headquarters in Montreal, Canada.

Police have engaged a leading firm of forensic accountants to analyse the documents.

The defendants were remanded until November 19th next on their own bail of £5,000 each. They were also ordered to surrender their passports but the magistrate, Mr Desmond Perry, said that if they wished to spend a couple of weeks in the sun and the authorities were satisfied they would return, then their passports could be given to them.