A former head of operations at the Royal Horticultural Society has been accused of conspiracy to steal nearly £700,000 from the charity.

Stuart Medhurst, 54, has been accused of two counts of conspiracy to steal and one count of fraud by abuse of position. The charges relate to his time while he was working as head of operations at the gardening charity.

Medhurst appeared at Westminster Magistrates court on Wednesday 28 January, accused of stealing £43,000 worth of goods and services between 2007 and 2014. Shaheen Kadri, 43, and Elaine Summers, 53, appeared alongside Medhurst, both charged with one count of conspiracy to steal.

Kadri allegedly received £317,110 from Medhurst between January 2004 and January 2015, and Summers recieved £360,859 over the same period.

The three defendants have been released on unconditional bail ahead of a preliminary hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 11 February. No pleas have yet been entered.

Sue Biggs, RHS’s director general, said: “We cannot comment on the case against Mr Medhurst, who used to be a manager at the RHS, as it is still on-going.  

“However, over the last three years we have been conducting in-depth audits across all our work and implementing more robust measures and controls to protect the Society.  Today we’re in a much stronger position to ensure unacceptable activity could not take place within the Society.  Any losses to the revenue to the charity will largely be covered by insurance.”