A man has been sentenced to four years in jail for defrauding a Herefordshire brain injury charity of £45,000.

David Field, aged 56, formerly of Glewstone, now living in Wormbridge, was employed as the Accounts Controller/Bookkeeper at Herefordshire Headway from August 2010 until January 2011. During this time he was responsible for the charity's finances, occupying a position of trust.

Concerns were raised in January 2011 and an internal inspection revealed irregularities in the charity's finances. The charity immediately alerted West Mercia Police, which launched a criminal investigation culminating in Mr Field being arrested.

He was charged with a number of offences in February 2012 and in December, he pleaded guilty at Hereford Crown Court to four charges of fraud, which were: making false representation that he failed to declare previous criminal convictions and lied about having a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) qualification; making false representation that he had authority to use the Herefordshire Headway debit card, causing losses of £16,547.02. This included using the debit card to top up a personal credit card, to pay for impotency drugs, to pay for a subscription to a dating website, to pay for his council tax bill for his home address and to pay for a stay at the Radisson Edwardian Grafton Hotel. Also using the debit card to withdraw cash from ATMs totalling £15,901.75; writing out a Headway account cheque for £2,400 to pay off a personal Tesco credit card bill.In court, it was calculated that the total amount stolen was valued at £34,796.83 and the judge added £10,000 to his illegal gains to include the amount earned in wages by Field under false pretences. This brought the total to nearly £45,000.

Returning to Hereford Crown Court today, Field was sentenced by His Honour Judge Pearce-Higgins QC to four years imprisonment and disqualified him from being a company director for eight years.

Detective Constable Diana Knight of West Mercia's Economic Crime Unit said: "This was a strong sentence that reflects the gravity of the implications Field's criminal activity has had for his victim, a local charity.

"When he sentenced Field, Judge Pearce-Higgins highlighted how Headway had been targeted from the start and the damage he had caused to the charity: he felt Field had deliberately applied for the role with the intention of offending.

"He lied about his previous qualifications to get the job and lied about previous convictions he had for theft from an employer and false accounting.

"Field stole from Headway the moment he started in the job up to the point he was suspended before being sacked. All of the offending was for personal gain and there was a massive breach of trust.

"I believe Field's behaviour was not only dishonest but cruel: he showed a total disregard for how his actions could have a serious effect on Headway and its clients, vulnerable people who need all the support the charity offers.

"He stole from them and frittered away a lot of the cash on trivial and lavish items such as expensive clothes, hotels and holidays."

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