Thame Scouting event leader jailed for fraud

A Deputy District Scout Commissioner for Oxfordshire has been jailed for fraud after fiddling the books over a payment for the hire of Thame Show ground.

Colin Arter (Image courtesy of The Oxford Mail)

Oxford Crown Court heard Colin Arter, of Spruce Drive, Bicester, told that he had ‘set a terrible example’ by taking the money from Oxfordshire Scouting, where he had volunteered for more than 25 years, and that by helping himself to £18,200 of the movment’s money he had committed a ‘grotesque breach of trust’.

The court heart that Arter had requested £10,000 for a deposit to book the Thame Show Ground for the county’s One World camp last summer, and £4,600 to hire a marquee. But he provided his own bank details and those of a friend he owed money to, and the sums were deposited to their accounts. Arter was caught when the Scouts tried to recover their deposits and when questioned he also admitted claiming a further £3,600.

His defence lawyer told the court that his client had run into financial difficulties and ‘had not been himself for some time’. Arter had, he said, at one time  ‘found himself standing precariously on a bridge over the motorway’.

Arter was jailed for 14 months after admitting one count of fraud by abuse of position between June 1, 2013, and March 27, 2014 this year.