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Aristocrat stole charity's £1.6m | |
(31 minutes later) | |
A wealthy aristocrat has received a suspended prison sentence for taking £1.6m from a family charity intended to help Bosnian orphans. | A wealthy aristocrat has received a suspended prison sentence for taking £1.6m from a family charity intended to help Bosnian orphans. |
Jonathan Davies, 65, from south-west London, admitted 10 counts of theft. | Jonathan Davies, 65, from south-west London, admitted 10 counts of theft. |
An inquiry found Davies treated the Dinam Charity like a "bottomless piggy bank", Southwark Crown Court heard. | |
He spent it on school fees, golf club membership and credit cards and put £1m towards the development of an inventor friend's spark plug. | |
Charity secretary | Charity secretary |
The Dinam Charity was set up in 1926 by Davies's philanthropist grandfather Lord Davies, the first Baron of Llandinam in Wales, the court was told. | |
All the thefts were committed between July 1999 and June 2000, during Davies's last year as charity secretary. | |
They first came to light when a relative discovered the money was missing from the accounts. | |
The 10 thefts involved just over £232,000 but inquiries revealed Davies, from Balham, had taken more than £1,656,000 from the charity. | |
It was an extraordinary exhibition of arrogance on your part that you decided to deliberately override the wishes of the trustees Judge James Wadsworth QC | |
Prosecuting, Stephen Leslie QC said Davies had "abused his position of authority and trust and turned the funds of the charity to his own uses". | |
The charity, which funded a number of "worthy causes" including small charities in Wales and Bosnia, is now in the process of being wound up. | |
Sentencing, Judge James Wadsworth QC told Davies that he "clearly" understood the responsibility and trust bestowed upon him as charity secretary. | |
Davies was also aware of the trustee's "very strong view" that the charity's money should not be used to fund his friend's spark plug invention. | |
"It was an extraordinary exhibition of arrogance on your part that you decided to deliberately override the wishes of the trustees," the judge told him. | |
"You knew at all times you were handling the funds in direct contradiction of their wishes. | |
"What you did with the balance of the money I find even more extraordinary." | |
The judge said he was "quite satisfied" that the proper sentence would be three to four years imprisonment but "exceptional circumstances" warranted him suspending Davies's two-year sentence for two years. | |
He took into account Davies's guilty pleas, the fact it was "immensely unlikely" he would commit another offence of dishonesty and "as a matter of mercy" due to Davies's poor health. |
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