A man has been jailed for defrauding a church and an education charity out of more than £285,000.
Terence Capstick had worked as a volunteer treasurer for the Winslow Parish Church and as a grantmaker for the Rogers Free Educational Trust when he committed the offences between January 2019 and October 2023.
During this period, he stole £163,000 from the church’s bank account and £122,052 from the educational trust’s account.
Capstick, 75, was sentenced last week at Aylesbury Crown Court to four years in prison for two counts of fraud by abuse of position.
He had pleaded guilty on 20 May at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court after being arrested on 19 March and charged on 23 April.
‘Systematic abuse of a position of trust’
Detective constable Ross Acland, of the Thames Valley Police’s central fraud unit, said that the outcome was “the correct result” and that Capstick had “systematically abused the position of trust he was placed in through greed and solely for personal gain”.
Acland added: “Over the course of more than four years he has taken community funds earmarked for good causes and used them to fund his own lifestyle.”
The Bishop of Buckingham, Dave Bull, said: “We are very grateful for the work of Thames Valley Police and the Courts service for bringing this regrettable case to justice.
“Fraud is a crime which has far reaching consequences, not least the financial viability of a parish, and we are glad to have the clarity and certainty we needed regarding the actions of the former treasurer to St Laurence, Winslow.”
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