A FORMER charity boss has been ordered to pay back almost £3,000 he stole from the organisation that employed him.

Christopher Hedges was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court after admitting submitting bogus expense claims while serving as chief executive for the charity Open Sight, which supports blind and visually impaired people across Hampshire.

The court heard how Hedges, 63, falsely claimed cash from the charity over a three year period which totalled £2,919.

He was dismissed by the organisation in 2010 over allegations of bullying.

That came after he was unmasked as a paedophile by the Daily Echo - a criminal record that he had failed to declare to the charity when he was employed.

It was revealed how he had been jailed after admitting having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old.

Hedges, who by the time he left the charity commanded a salary of £47,000, was then arrested on fraud allegations in 2012, two years after he was dismissed from the charity.

As part of the probe police examined his accounts and compared them to claims he had made whilst he was employed.

They found that on 65 occasions he had made false claims for expenses.

Examples included:

  • Claiming he had travelled to London for a meeting but in fact claiming £144 for a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant
  • Claiming for some electrical equipment that in fact was the receipt for some shoes
  • Falsely claiming £56 which turned out to cover a shopping spree in Eastleigh
  • Claiming just over £52 for work purposes which turned out to be for goods from a tropical aquatic centre

The court was told that Hedges was the figurehead of the charity and had successfully led the organisation through a number of changes.

But he was described as a workaholic who had difficulty separating his private from his personal life.

Prosecutor Nicholas Tucker said Hedges was also responsible for rewriting the staff handbook which included policies for claiming expenses.

He managed to falsely claim expenses for three years until he was dismissed in 2010, often by tearing off the top of the receipt to conceal the merchant's details.

Mitigating for Hedges, who pleaded guilty to four allegations of fraud by abuse of position at a previous hearing, Robert Bryan told the court the defendant also suffered from a pre-existing depressive illness which also meant he was currently not working and had, in part led to the case being delayed through the courts.

In sentencing him to a nine month prison sentence suspended for two years, an 18-month supervision order and a compensation order for the stolen money along with £1,000 costs order, Judge Rowland said Hedges had displayed "breathtaking hypocrisy" in flouting the rules he himself had written.

"You abused that trust by fiddling your expenses," he said.

Judge Rowland added that evidence given by the current CEO of the charity Tessa Barrett which indicated the organisation had not suffered a significant financial impact from his actions, had spared him an immediate jail term.

After the hearing when asked by the Daily Echo whether he had anything to say to the 400 volunteers who work for the charity and the 4,000 people who are supported by Open Sight.

Hedges, of Pitmore Close, Eastleigh, said: "Of course I apologise, but I have nothing more to say."

Tessa Barrett said she thought the outcome was 'fair' but added there was no way of telling what damage the episode had had on the charity.

"I must pay tribute to my team and the board of trustees who have been incredible throughout this whole case," she added.

Since the criminal activity came to light the charity has undergone reviews by the Charity Commission and local partners which have approved of the action taken and measures that have been introduced.