The treasurer of a Medway parent-teacher association who stole £40,000 from funds has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Kevin Carter raided the hard-earned cash of Hilltop Primary School PTA in Frindsbury over two years between January 2011 and January 2013.

The 50-year-old financial adviser, of The Chimes, Hoo, diverted 107 cheques into his own account.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright told Maidstone Crown Court the PTA had raised the money to buy a new computer suite for pupils at the school.

Carter set up a system so that other members did not know what was being paid into the bank.

Headteacher Gavin Evans believed there was £24,000 in a savings account but when he enquired at the bank, he was told there was nothing in it.

Carter had forged the signature of another PTA member and suspicion fell on her briefly.

The married father has repaid £28,204 from bonuses earned from the company he worked for.

“The real victims of this are firstly the PTA and the children it was intended to benefit and secondly your innocent wife and children. You should be ashamed of yourself...” - Judge Jeremy Carey

A confiscation hearing will be held later in the year in the hope that the outstanding amount can also be repaid.

Judge Jeremy Carey told Carter, who admitted theft: “When the police came to your home in 2013 you were regarded as having been stunned by the reason of your arrest.

“You may have been stunned, I have no doubt your wife was absolutely appalled. You were a pillar of the community - a father of two little girls, a seemingly trustworthy hard-working man with the highest standards of probity - and, yet, you were revealed, as you well knew, as a thief.

“I have indicated just how great the trust was placed in you. Up and down the country there are no doubt PTAs where treasurers conduct the affairs of those relatively amateurish associations in a law-abiding way.

“They rely on the trustworthiness of those who volunteer to keep accurate and reliable accounts. You breached that trust most grossly.

“Those who hear and read of these sentencing remarks are entitled to expect the court will regard as very serious indeed the situation where those who have worked hard on a voluntary basis to raise money then discover a very large amount of that money was stolen by the very person trusted to keep it safe.”

The judge said Carter had fallen from a very high position of trust and respect in the community.

“I doubt whether you will ever recover your position in any material respect,” he said.

“The real victims of this are firstly the PTA and the children it was intended to benefit and secondly your innocent wife and children. You should be ashamed of yourself.”