A director of a housing charity, who duped his employers out of more than £66,000 has been jailed for 16 months.
Paul Treston (47) also unsuccessfully tried to steal a further £32,631.
Leicester Crown Court was told that Treston, a £70,000-a-year head of land acquisition for the Riverside Group, set up his own businesses to dishonestly invoice his bosses for consultancy work he was not entitled to be paid for, or was never carried out.
Treston also tried to manipulate his employers into paying a builder for work he was having done on his own barn conversion.
The defendant, of Catthorpe Road, Shawell, near Lutterworth, admitted theft of £66,419 between April 2011 and January 2012.
He also pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud, in relation to companies he falsely purported were providing services to Riverside Group.
Sentencing, Judge Simon Hammond said: "This was a carefully worked out fraud, involving several companies, some in his own name and it went on for some time.
"It was a gross abuse of trust.
"He was holding a high degree of trust for a charitable company.
"It included fraud against his employer to pay for building work at his own home.
"He wasn't entitled to claim consultancy fees."
Esther Harrison, prosecuting, said: "The Riverside Group is a registered charity, a national housing association with 45,000 properties, rented out as social housing to those who can't afford market rates.
"The group builds on average 500 properties a year, with funding for the purchase of land provided by the charity, and the defendant was based at the Leicester office, Riverside House, in Western Boulevard.
"When he commenced employment in 2008, his role was to find land for building on and by use of consultants for introductions he was to negotiate the purchasing."
Treston was one of 40 directors in the group, answerable to six group directors above him and the chief executive.
He abused the system to pay "suppliers" in the names of companies he secretly owned, registered at addresses in different parts of the country.
Businesses he owned and used in the fraud, were Wilmar Ltd, SDR and Man In The Middle.
When interviewed by the police he said he could not remember signing a declaration excluding his right to do any contract, or consultancy, work for the charity.
His wife was unaware of his dishonestly, the court was told.
Since then £21,319 of the stolen cash has been repaid and the court confiscated a further £16,131 of available funds to compensate the losers.
James Beck, mitigating, said: "His own finances became a disaster.
"He had two properties, both requiring extensive renovation.
"He sold one at a loss and was left with a barn he was trying to convert – that's why he did what he did and took the money out of the company.
"It's a very big group and the economic impact hasn't been significant.
"His career is ruined, his reputation is ruined and his personal life is in ruins.
"For someone who used to live in a half-a-million pound property that he once owned, he's now been living in a static caravan in a field for some time."
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