US fraud case couple Paul and Sandra Dunham freed until trial

Paul and Sandra Dunham are accused of expenses claim fraud at the US company they formerly worked for

A couple awaiting trial in the US on fraud charges have been told they will be freed until the start of their case.

Paul and Sandra Dunham, from Northampton, were extradited last month accused of expenses fraud at the US company they formerly worked for.

Their US lawyer Deborah Boardman said they had overturned a decision by a Maryland court to deny bail after they were accused of posing a "flight risk".

It is expected they will be released next week but must remain in the US.

The pair, both 58, were last month told at the District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, that they would be on remand for up to 10 months at the Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore.

Before they left the UK the couple expressed fears they could be driven to suicide if they were remanded in the US "with murderers and rapists" for months while awaiting trial.

The allegations centre on Mr Dunham's time as chief executive and president of Pace, a US company manufacturing soldering irons for the electronics industry. Mrs Dunham was director of sales.

The indictment says that between 2002 and 2009 the couple fraudulently charged personal expenses to their corporate credit cards and submitted vouchers to Pace for reimbursement that falsely described them as business expenses.