Retired pilot took £20,000 from Old Boys' club

Retired Royal Navy helicopter pilot Anthony Hall took nearly £20,000 for his own personal use, Stafford Crown Court was told.

Hall, from Lichfield, who carried out 'high-profile' missions during his military service, got deep into debt after his business partner died and their company collapsed.

Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said the victim in the case was the Royal Hospital School Old Boys' Association, in Suffolk.

It was not a charity but funded by ex-pupils to help current students and to pay for the association's activities. The fraud came to light in 2013 after a round of infighting between two factions, the election of a new committee and a new treasurer.

In October 2013, the new treasurer asked Hall to hand over all the documents relating to the accounts and the defendant initially failed to do it before providing a small amount of information.

It was not enough to carry out a proper audit but the new treasurer identified a number of suspicious transactions.

They included two items labelled 'tax payments' for the years 2011/12 and 2012/13 totalling £12,000.

As a non-profit organisation, the association would pay no tax whatsoever, said Mr Edwards.

The new treasurer was unable to make any sense of the accounts as presented to him by Hall but in a basis of plea, the defendant has accepted taking a total of £19,988 from the funds, less than the £28,000 estimated by the association.

The exact figure will be settled in proceeds of crime act proceedings to follow later.

Hall was confronted by members of the association before police were called in and he denied taking any money and the accounts were in

order.

He claimed that they had been audited by someone at HSBC's Lichfield branch, but the bank had no-one of that name working for them.

Hall, aged 64, of Sunbury Avenue, Lichfield, admitted a charge of fraud.

Miss Catherine O'Reilly, mitigating, said Hall had performed distinguished military service as a Royal Nay helicopter pilot.

She said: "He's been involved in numerous high profile missions over the years."

These included rescuing holidaymakers from Cyprus, taking off from the Atlantic Conveyor just before it was sunk during the Falklands War and being the victim of an IRA bomb attack in Northern Ireland.

She said Hall began to drink after losing his grandson and his life took a turn for the worse.

He was given a 16 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.

Judge Paul Glenn told him: "You have come very, very close indeed to a prison sentence and you had better realise that. If you mess about on this order at all, back to me you will come and to prison you will go."