A WORKER who stole almost £200,000 from a charity has been jailed for six years, despite claiming he was owed the money for unpaid overtime.

Stephen Osborne, of Ilfracombe Avenue, Southend, stolen £187,923, from disabled charity Vibrance, which is based in Southend and Bethnal Green.

After being sacked, the 43-yearold father-of-two stole a further £25,107 from a London-based recruitment firm.

On Friday at Basildon Crown Court, he was jailed for six years after being convicted of three counts of fraud.

At the charity he used a colleague’s card and pin to authorise the payments to his own bank account, using fake payment details.

Osbourne then later stole tax rebate cash for workers at the recruitment firm after being sacked from the charity over fraud claims.

None of the money was paid back and Recorder Oliver Cambell told him the loss had a “serious impact” on the charity which helps disabled people.

Mitigating, Ronnie Bergenthal, said: “There was no evidence of an extravagant lifestyle from his ill-gotten gains. He was trying to keep his head above water and the greed got the better of him.

“The offending is quite close together in time. We say there was medium impact on the business and the charity.”

Sentencing Osborne at Basildon Crown Court on Friday, Recorder Oliver Cambell told him he had been dishonest during the trial.

He said: “Between 2014 and 2019 you committed fraud against the charity Vibrance, you stole £26,767 and then you took £161,162.48. A high level of trust was placed in you and you used another woman’s card and pin.

“You gave dishonest evidence in the trial about this and you got around the security system to authorise the payments.

“You tried to tell the jury you card had been damaged and these payments were authorised by managers but the payments were not agreed.”

He said Osborne has breached the trust placed in him and committed the offences over a sustained period of time.

He added: “At Tempest Resourcing, you were again in a position of trust and clients got holiday and were due to get paid tax rebates but you stole this money