A former head of Oxfam's counter-fraud unit has been jailed for defrauding the charity out of nearly £65,000.
Edward McKenzie-Green, 34, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was sentenced to two years and five months' imprisonment at the Old Bailey for making payments to fictitious firms.
He had pleaded guilty to the charge.
A charge against his father, Edward Green, 61, of Cumbernauld, Glasgow, who had been accused of helping him launder more than £35,000, was dropped.
The court heard McKenzie-Green had made £64,612.58 in payments from Oxfam to fictitious firms between February and December 2011.
He had also been accused of stealing a laptop from the charity in December 2011 but the charge was dropped.
Prosecutor Adam King said the "carefully planned" scam involved submitting false invoices to companies McKenzie-Green had set up.
In mitigation, Matthew Sherratt said McKenzie-Green had a "serious addiction to prescription medication" up until January last year and his marriage was failing.
These factors, combined with a high-pressure job, meant he "effectively suffered a breakdown", he added.
One has to wonder why we give to charities when we read things like this. It's bad enough that more charity donations pay for administration or siphoned off by corrupt government officials than actually gets to where it is intended for but when we hear that even local charity workers are filling their pockets at the expense of those in dire need I wonder why we bother.

