A COUNCIL worker who cheated taxpayers out of more than £66,000 has been jailed for two years.

Lee Halliday plundered £25,000 from the coffers of the local authority which he transferred into his partner’s bank account.

And the 31-year-old also abused his position as a parking administrator to sell more than £40,000 of permits to friends at knock down rates.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that the local authority sells annual car park season tickets for between £1,400 and £2,000.

Early last year she said it was found that people who had made inquiries about permits were being contacted and told they could get a discount for cash.

They were informed that if they came in to the council offices and saw Halliday he could get them the ticket at a fraction of the price.

“The cash received from these never found its way into the council accounts,” she said.

In the year up to late February 2015 she said the council lost out on £41,462.36p as a result of his actions selling the permits.

She said it was also uncovered that between early 2009 and September 2014 he had been helping himself to council money.

Part of his job was to issue refunds to permit holders and on 25 occasions he created a false names and had the money paid into his bank account.

When he was questioned he initially said he had not benefitted from selling the permits, but it was found £4,000 in cash had been paid into his account.

Halliday, of Jennings Street, pleaded guilty to fraud and theft.

Nicholas Clough, defending, said his client was a married man, with a 12-month-old daughter and another child due in September, who had never been in trouble before.

He said that the theft of the money could not have been done without the help of others, in particular someone in accounts.

The fraud took place after he discovered that people working for certain companies were entitled to discounts on their parking.

When a friend said they were struggling to pay for their permit he offered to help, and when word got around he found he was issuing many discounts.

Although the payments were made in cash he said that was because the discount couldn’t be applied to a card transaction and the money was all banked by the council, apart from the £4,000 in his account.

At the time he said his client was £35,000 in debt, which he had managed to get down to £7,000, by entering into a management scheme with his creditors.

“He bitterly regrets what he has done wrong. He has lost his good character and put pressure on himself and his family,” he said.

“He has lost his job he held for eight years. For the last 12 months he has been effectively out of work living basically from hand to mouth, doing some internet sales.”

Jailing him Judge Peter Blair QC said: “You were employed by the local authority in a position where you had access to money and the ability to take advantage of a position of trust that was placed in you.

“The breach of trust was a serious one that led to you depriving the council of a total of nearly £67,000.

"While you may have had all sorts of debt problems, which I don’t doubt, your method of seeking to get yourself out of difficulty is no excuse for the seriousness of what you have committed.

“An important element in your case is deterrence: people must know in cases like this, especially with the local authority that works on behalf of all the citizens that they are looking after and providing services for, they must know if you steal from them or commit fraud tot their expense, that there is severe punishment due.”