January 9, 2012 12.53 pm This story is over 154 months old

Man jailed for stealing £40k from charity

Jail sentence: A 69-year-old local man was sentenced to two yeas in jail for stealing more than £40,000 from a charity.

A 69-year-old man from Eagle, near Lincoln, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay back the £42,000 he stole from a county children’s educational charity.

Michael Thompson appeared last December at Lincoln Magistrates Court and was charged with stealing £42,000 from the Mukherjee Brothers Charitable Trust between 2009 and 2010.

Magistrates committed his case to Lincoln Crown Court for sentencing, where earlier on January 9 a judge sentenced Thompson to two years in prison and ordered him to pay the cash back.

DC Nick Hakes of Lincoln CID was the investigating officer and said Thopmson risked the future of the charity, which would have been a loss for young people in Lincolnshire.

“We are extremely pleased that this cash will now be repaid and we hope this conviction and sentencing demonstrates our determination to actively pursue and bring to justice, anyone engaged in this kind of criminality,” Hakes said.

Trust Chairman Arthur Ridings said: “Following the sentence passed on Michael Thompson, Trustees of the Mukherjee Brothers and the Johnson and Mukherjee Brothers Charitable Trusts have terminated Mr Thompson’s appointment to the Board of Trustees of both Trusts.

“Trustees are particularly sad that the trust placed in Mr Thompson by the late Sibu Mukherjee, the Trusts’ founder, was so cynically abused.

“The theft of money, so selflessly donated through a lifetime of saving by Sibu Mukherjee, for the benefit of young children in primary schools in Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire, was clearly a reprehensible act.”

Source: Lincolnshire Police