Jailed: Married accountant who swindled bosses of £120,000 and stole staff collection for victims of Tsunami

A married accountant who swindled his bosses out of £124,176 to lavish money on a male prostitute was behind bars in disgrace today.

Thomas Watson not only systematically defrauded the company he worked for as a financial controller, he even pocketed a collection raised by its staff to aid victims of the Tsunami earthquake, a Crown Court heard.

Father-of-two Watson, 57, was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to 14 counts of theft and asking the court to take 84 similar offences into consideration.

The smartly-dressed defendant was led away down to the cells by dock officers at Guildford Crown Court as his anguished wife, to whom he had been married for 34 years, looked on from the public gallery.

Sentencing Watson, Judge Michael Addison told him: 'It was a serious breach of trust.'

The court was told that Watson had been employed for four years as financial controller to Noma Lites Ltd, in Weybridge, Surrey where he had access to all the firm's financial records and was an authorised signatory of its cheques.

Thomas Cleeve, prosecuting, said: 'He had possession of a supervisor's card for a machine which could be used to take and refund credit card payments from clients.'

'He was fully responsible for petty cash with a float of £5,000. His salary was £33,000 a year with a car allowance and a company pension contribution.'

Mr Cleeve said that between February 8, 2005, and November 14, 2006, the defendant abused his position by repeatedly stealing money from the company until he was rumbled by his superiors and sacked before being arrested in January last year (2007).

Thousands of pounds was paid to a male escort James Mannion, 34, of Garrick Street, Soho, London, the court heard.

'Mr Mannion was an escort and would provide, it seems, companionship and at times sexual services to clients for payment. Thomas Watson, at the time we are concerned with, appears to have been one of his clients,' said Mr Cleeve.

When Mr Marrion was interviewed he told officers he usually charged £100 per hour or £1,000 for an afternoon or overnight, and he saw Watson up to twice a week but he rarely stayed for more than an hour.

But he added that Watson sometimes gave him blank cheques and had been a client since 1999.

Mr Mannion was originally charged with two counts of converting criminal property, acquiring criminal property, transferring criminal property and attempting to convert property.

But when Watson was sentenced it was confirmed that the prosecution was no longer offering any evidence against Mr Mannion who had denied knowing the money was criminal.

Mr Cleeve said that Watson had also kept £690 collected by the staff of Noma Lites Ltd for the Tsunami Fund.

On his arrest, Watson of Camberley, Surrey told detectives: 'It's not something I'm proud of.'

Mr Brian Kennedy, defending, described the affair as a 'baffling and unusual case' and added: 'My client had an obsession which turned him into a thief.'

He said the defendant, who was of previous good character, had now got a job as a driver, earning £1,100 a month.

Mr Kennedy said Watson was particularly ashamed of the Tsunami collection theft and intended to repay it.