A couple have been warned they face jail after being found guilty of stealing from a land speed record fund.

Ann Maria McGrath, 53, and her partner David Paul Hodgson, 46, had both denied stealing £18,126 from the Lonan Gentlemen’s Fellowship Supporters’ Club (LGFSC).

But today a jury at the Court of General Gaol Delivery found them both guilty of theft, after hearing evidence that the pair had used the fund as their ’personal piggy bank’.

Deemster Main-Thompson told the court: ’One of the particular features of this case is the absolute refusal of these defendants in the teeth of quite strong evidence to show any remorse or to acknowledge any responsibility for the serious breach of trust over a long period of time.’

He said a custodial sentence was ’likely’ but probation reports would be of assistance in relation to the nature and extent of the sentence, given the defendants’ previous good character.

The jury of six men and one woman took just over an hour and half to return their guilty verdicts following a 10-day trial.

McGrath and Hodgson, of Pinfold Hill, in Laxey, were granted bail over the Christmas period, ahead of their sentencing in mid-January, while probation reports are prepared.

Prosecutor James Robinson said immediate custody of two to three years was ’almost inevitable’ but did not oppose bail.

He said the victim, the Lonan Gentlemen’s Fellowship Supporters’ Club, should have the money returned to it. Mr Robinson said Hodgson’s bank account, which is currently subject to a restraining order, had a large sum of money in it.

The Deemster agreed that the money should be returned within 14 days.

The court heard that Miss McGrath had been the group’s treasurer and Mr Hodgson was one of the riders planning a speed record attempt in the 2014 Bonneville Speed Week.

In the event, Bonneville Speed Week 2014 was cancelled as a result of bad weather but the defendants stayed on in America for a holiday.

The jury heard that there had been various withdrawals from the fund, made without committee approval.

These included unidentified cash withdrawals, money spent at Shoprite, money spent on ’bike parts’ which should have been claimed retrospectively, £1,300 on flights, a payment to ’Alcatraz Cruises’ and a payment to a slimming products company.

There was also a £10,000 transfer to Hodgson’s account.