A SHAREHOLDER of a popular Bolton fishery has been jointly charged with stealing £45,000 from the business he helped to establish.

Stanley Messer, aged 64, of Brindley Street, Pendlebury, is accused of stealing the money from Bradshaw Hall Fisheries with employee Julia Applegate, aged 50, of Stonesteads Way, Bromley Cross.

The pair were arrested in October after a year-long police investigation into finances at the fishing spot in Slack Lane, Bradshaw.

Detectives were alerted after suspected irregularities were spotted in the company accounts.

Messer and Applegate appeared at Bolton Magistrates' Court on January 30 and were released on bail until March 27.

Both have been suspended from duties, although Messer still has a share in the business.

Messer formed Bradshaw Hall Fisheries Ltd with co-owners John Kelly and Joe Green in 1999.

The trio have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds transforming the site into one of the area's best-regarded angling centres.

Last year, they opened a 1km, canal-shaped, purpose-built, fishing lake for 100 pegs on the site.

Applegate had worked in the fishery cafe and ticket office for four years before being suspended.

Mr Kelly said he had been shocked by the police investigation "It would be wrong of me to say too much, but I have known Stan for many years and the whole investigation came as a shock to me," he said.