A THIEF who stole £145,000 from a charity to pay his gay lover’s blackmail demands was jailed for more than three years today.

John Francis Lakeman, 67, of St Edmund’s Church Street, Salisbury, had admitted stealing the money from young people’s charity the Broad Town Trust over ten years while he was administrator.

He pleaded guilty to ten multiple-incident counts, each covering dozens of individual thefts.

Sentencing Lakeman, Judge Barnett said: “You quite deliberately pilfered sums of money over that period of time, exploiting your position within that trust, abusing your position in quite a spectacular fashion.

“The damage you have done to the trust of upright, honest and decent people who involved themselves in the working of that trust cannot be overstated.”

Lakeman spoke only to confirm his name and showed no emotion as his sentence was read out.

Judge Barnett said trustees had spoken of their incredulity, disbelief, horror and dismay when they discovered what had happened.

“It’s the most shocking piece of conduct for someone in your highly-trusted position to have behaved in that way for such a considerable period of time,” he said.

The judge said he accepted Lakeman had been blackmailed, but he should have gone to the police.

Sentencing him to 40 months in jail, Judge Barnet said: “I hope during the course of that time you will reflect on the seriousness of your offending.”

Prosecuting, James Kellam read from the trustees’ victim impact statement, which said they felt the whole ethos of the trust had been betrayed.

He said trustees had felt guilty, wondering if they could have done more to uncover the crimes, and extremely angry the deceit had happened during their time in office.

Defending, Megan Topliss said Lakeman took full responsibility for the crimes, having pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

She said her client had stolen the money in a “spiral of being blackmailed”, fearing his secret would be exposed, and not to fund a “lavish lifestyle”.

And she said police had found written threats and a list of the assaults Lakeman had received, including a broken jaw.
“Of course he is ashamed,” said Ms Topliss.
“He feels shame and loathing that he could have behaved in this way for such a significant period of time.”

The court heard Lakeman wrote hundreds of cheques out to cash or to himself during his time in office, forging signatures and minutes of trust meetings to cover his tracks.

His crimes only came to light when charity’s registration was cancelled and Lakeman retired.

A new administrator went through the books and discovered the deception.

After his arrest, Lakeman admitted he had been systematically stealing from the trust for many years.