Finance manager 'unquestionably dishonest', Cirencester trial told

One charge relates to a cash payment machine at Cotswold District Council's offices in Cirencester.

A senior official abused his position in a "calculated, deceptive and covert" way to steal public money, a court has heard.

Thomas Clark is accused of stealing from a payment machine in a council office and wiping out debts owed by his friends.

He was working for a company serving district councils in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire at the time.

The 35-year-old denies three charges of fraud and one count of theft.

The actions of Mr Clark, who was a revenue and compliance manager, were described as "unquestionably dishonest".

His case, which related to alleged offences committed between February 2018 and April 2019, is being heard at Gloucester Crown Court, sitting at Cirencester Courthouse.

Prosecutor Alan Fuller told the jury that when a cash payment machine at Cotswold District Council's offices in Cirencester developed a fault Mr Clark took advantage by stealing £120 which a customer had paid in.

An investigation that followed led council officials to evidence that Mr Clark had also used "ingenuity and cunning" to wipe out a £280 debt owed to West Oxfordshire District Council by friends from Witney with whom he had once lived, alleged the prosecutor.

Although the sums of money involved in the alleged offences were "modest", the evidence showed that Mr Clark had behaved dishonestly not just towards his employer, the Publica Group, but also to the council taxpayers he served, Mr Fuller said.

'Calculated, deceptive and covert'

Mr Fuller told the jury "Mr Clark was in a senior position of the utmost trust. He held significant financial responsibility and he was expected to make decisions to safeguard the financial interests of the councils and, most significantly, the council taxpayers.

"He is a man of previous good character. He will say he wouldn't have put his job and his good character at risk for such modest sums.

"But looking at the evidence the prosecution say, and invite you to conclude, that that is exactly what he did.

"We say he was exploiting his position and was guilty of a catalogue of actions that were calculated, deceptive and covert and were carried out in a way that was unquestionably dishonest and not, as he would claim, simply innocent errors of judgement."

The trial is expected to last all this week.