Charity manager jailed for theft

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 27th Mar 2008

A charity boss has been jailed after he admitted stealing £150,000 donated for disabled children and adults.

Over three years, John Cunningham, of Ferndown, took Dorset Scope's money by cashing cheques and creating false invoices to cover his tracks.

The 35-year-old's lifestyle included a luxury Sandbanks flat and fast cars. He admitted his crimes to police in January 2007. A judge at Bournemouth Crown Court sentenced him to two years and nine months.

Earlier, the court heard Cunningham, the charity's former financial manager, told colleagues he had business interests elsewhere to explain his extravagant lifestyle. He owned a Lexus sports car, a Mitsubishi Jeep, a Harley Davidson, a BMW motorbike and took flying lessons.

After he admitted the thefts in court last month, Det Con Michael Garrett, of Dorset Police, described Cunningham as "a bit of a Walter Mitty" character who began his dual lifestyle after splitting up with his wife.

Speaking after the case, Paul Barnard, chief executive of Dorset Scope, said he and his staff felt "angry and betrayed" by what happened." He added: "The day-to-day income of all our work has not suffered.... (but) our central funds have suffered and we've not been able to commit to a couple of our new services that we wanted to."

Cunningham will serve half his sentence in prison and half out on licence.