The former £41,000 a year campaign director for the League Against Cruel Sports, Steven Taylor, has been jailed for eight months for defrauding the charity of £15,000 with his company credit card.

Taylor,36, had previous convictions for obtaining property by deception and forgery, aspects that were unknown to the League when they took him on, based on excellent references, in 2009, something the League says should stand as a lesson to all charities.

One of the hundreds of frauds was the purchase of an iPad as a leaving present for an outgoing chief executive, for which Taylor used his company credit card and then pocketed the cash donations from staff.