Colin Nesbitt: Bradford cancer charity founder guilty of theft

The founder of a children's cancer charity has been convicted of stealing over £87,000 from the organisation.

Colin Nesbitt, from Bingley, West Yorkshire, was also convicted of abusing his position as a director of the Little Heroes Cancer Trust.

The 60-year-old denied financially benefiting from charity, but was found guilty after a five-week trial.

Nesbitt was cleared of three other charges and will be sentenced on 30 April at Bradford Crown Court.

Prosecutors said the Bradford-based charity had raised funds through sponsored firewalking events, but some of the money was diverted by Nesbitt, who they argued did not allow others to bank money raised for the organisation.

They added that in addition to stealing money, Nesbitt had abused his position by transferring thousands of pounds of the charity's funds into other bank accounts, using some of it to provide unsecured loans to two other people.

In 2012, the charity and Nesbitt, who founded the organisation after his grandson became ill, featured in the Channel 4 programme the Secret Millionaire and received a £100,000 donation.

Nesbitt, of Kent Road, Bingley, was first arrested in October 2015 after concerns were raised about the charity's finances by the Charity Commission.

In police interviews, he denied any fraud and said he did not take a wage and rarely claimed expenses.

However, he admitted financial management was "not one of his strengths".

In evidence, Nesbitt told the jury he had put his own money into the charity at the start and admitted it had been hard to keep track of its finances.

"I wasn't careful enough with the money but I wasn't being dishonest," he said.

Defending, Matthew Donkin said his client had not been living an extravagant lifestyle and said the prosecution case was based on a misunderstanding of how the charity worked.

During the trial, Judge Jonathan Gibson directed the jury to acquit Nesbitt in relation to charges of providing false or misleading information to the Charity Commission.

The jury also found him not guilty of a further charge of fraud and one of the theft of £7,000.

Judge Gibson warned Nesbitt a custodial sentence would be under consideration.

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