A finance officer who stole almost £100,000 from a homelessness charity has been jailed for a year after a judge condemned him for taking from “the weakest members of our society”.

Marcel Mackle, 52, was charged with stealing £69,000 from the Edward Street Hostel in Portadown, Northern Ireland – though it was accepted by all in Craigavon Crown Court on Tuesday that the true figure was £93,442. Mackle was sentenced to spend a year in jail and another year on a supervised licence.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that Judge Patrick Lynch QC said: “There was a particular meanness to the offence.” Addressing the charity finance officer, he said that due to his position “an extreme degree of trust was reposed upon you”.

Mackle, from Lakelands in Craigavon, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft and seven charges of false accounting on dates between 1 February 2006 and 8 September 2012.

Prosecuting lawyer Ciaran McCollum added that as finance officer for the charity, Mackle had a “fairly autonomous role” in recording what money came in and where it went. This was why his actions lay undiscovered for so long.

Defence lawyer Connor Luney said that Mackle had been using the money to feed his gambling addiction and to take his wife on weekends away.

The Belfast Telegraph added that the charity believed it was £23,000 in credit  with regards to its tax bill but an audit investigation carried out in September last year found that it actually owed HMRC £48,000.
 
Mackle was the only person authorised to use the online systems of HMRC, meaning the thefts went undetected. Mr McCollum said that the audit in September last year finally revealed the frauds.

The running of the Edward Street Hostel was taken over by the Simon Community after these events came to light.