The former chair of Lincoln and District Mencap and his wife have both been jailed for fraud and theft from vulnerable clients of the charity.
Peter and Alison Childs (pictured), from Nettleham in Lincolnshire, faced more than 30 charges of theft, fraud, breaches of trust and false accounting, including defrauding the charity's own service users. Alison Childs was the accommodation manager at the charity which helped people with learning difficulties to live independently; her husband was chair.
DC Helen McGill, of Lincoln CID, said after the sentencing: “What Peter and Alison Childs did was systematically exploit vulnerable people who trusted them and gave them in good faith money that they thought would be secure for their future needs.
“It has not only had a terrible effect on the victims, some of whom handed over thousands of pounds, but could also have a wider impact on the trust people have in charities."
It has been reported that Peter Childs, 61, and Alison Childs, 48, could have stolen in excess of £125,000 from the charity between 2006 and 2011.
They were convicted at Lincoln Crown Court after a six-week trial.
The charity was removed from the Register of Charities last month. A spokeswoman from the Charity Commission said that this was because it had stopped operating following the criminal prosecution of two of its trustees for fraud.
The spokeswoman said: “The Commission did monitor the charity during this time to determine whether it would continue to operate, at which point we would have considered what regulatory action should be taken.
“However, the charity did not resume operation and has closed down so there is no further regulatory role for the Commission.”
The charity, which operated on donations and a grant from Lincolnshire County Council, was paid regular utility and maintenance payments by some of its members, and then paid their bills on their behalf. Peter and Alison Childs required more of this money than was needed to pay these bills from the members, keeping the surplus for themselves.
The crimes came to light after Peter Childs suffered a stroke and his wife took time off work and moved back home to look after him. Staff at the charity took on the extra paperwork and discovered the payments were much higher than the bills.
The court heard how the Childs hired Lithuanian national Inga Stasytyte as their housekeeper; however they paid her salary with the charity’s funds, despite Stasytyte never working for it. She went on to father Peter Childs' child in 2009, while receiving maternity pay from the charity.
Money taken from the charity included the payment of the Childs’ own private rental accommodation for a period of four years to the sum of £27,000.
Lincoln and District Mencap is a separate organisation from the Royal Mencap Society.
