Jail for employee whose theft left Herefordshire charity on brink of collapse (From Ledbury Reporter)

Jail for employee whose theft left Herefordshire charity on brink of collapse

5:13pm Monday 7th January 2013 in News

A HEREFORDSHIRE charity was left on the brink of collapse after a trusted employee stole more than £32,000, spending the cash on gambling and paying off credit card debts.

David Field, of Wormbridge, lied when he was employed as a book-keeper by Herefordshire Headway, pretending to have a Chartered Institute of Management (CIMA) qualification and hiding the fact he had previously been jailed for fraud.

Within a few months of getting a job at the charity’s Credenhill offices in 2010, 56-year-old Field was in charge of running Headway’s finances and in possession of the charity’s bank card.

In the space of four months from August 2010, Field withdrew £15,000 in cash and spent £16,713 online and in shops.

At Hereford Crown Court, Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC heard how he spent the money, paying off credit card debts and council tax.

Judge Pearce-Higgins sentenced Field to four years in jail and banned him from becoming a company director for the next eight years, adding that the damage he inflicted went much further that the £45,000 obtained through deception.

With Field now declared bankrupt, Headway will never get that £45,000 back.

His defence barrister said the “now virtually unemployable” Field initially intended to borrow small amounts but the situation “rapidly escalated” when he was unable to repay.

“He is devastated when he looks back at what he’s done,” he said.

“There’s no escaping the fact that what he did was mean and he knows it.”