An RSPCA trustee funded his “lavish lifestyle” by swindling the animal charity out of more than £100,000 during a five-year expenses scam for hotel stays and taxis, a court heard on Monday.
David Mawson, 50, is accused of exploiting the charity’s bank accounts to enjoy hundreds of nights in hotels he was not entitled to, as well as free journeys.
“This case is about fraud, we say, Mr Mawson committed over a five-year period between 2012 and 2017,” Andrew Hallworth, the prosecutor, told the Inner London Crown Court jury.
“It was a fraud committed by Mr Mawson when he was a trustee of the RSPCA, so this was a serious breach of trust by him.
“It was a fraud that was committed on a regular basis and involved Mr Mawson fraudulently using the charity’s bank card to fund his own lavish lifestyle to obtain free hotels and free taxi rides.”
The prosecution said Mr Mawson defrauded the charity of approximately £91,300 in hotel stays and approximately £10,000 in taxi fares.
“He had no right or permission to do what he did, despite anything he may say to the contrary and as such he acted dishonestly throughout.”
The court heard that it is the local voluntary trustees who make the day-to-day decisions regarding charity shops and local animal welfare projects.
Trustees are allowed to bill for “reasonable and necessary” costs, but the jury were told the money should not be for personal benefit.
Mr Mawson, of Staines Road, Twickenham, has pleaded not guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position between Jan 1, 2012 and Dec 21, 2017, namely while occupying the position of trustee, which he dishonestly abused regarding hotel and taxi expenses intending to make financial gain.
The South East London Branch (SELB) of the RSPCA has three charity shops in West Norwood, Grove Park and Sydenham. Mr Mawson was the SELB secretary since 2009.
“He exercised control over the SELB’s bank accounts and was, we say, more active in the daily running than others, anyway more busy than he would admit.”
Mr Mawson typically booked Premier Inn rooms and spent over £18,000 on the SELB Barclaycard; over £43,000 on a Co-op debit card and over £29,000 on a CAF Bank corporate account, the trial heard.
436 nights at Premier Inn
Between 2013 and 2017, Mr Mawson enjoyed a total of 436 nights at various Premier Inn’s paid for by the RSPCA’s accounts.
“However, the true number is likely to be much larger as individual payments through the bank statements may represent more than one nights’ stay,” explained Mr Hallworth.
“There was no charity business going on that would justify these hotel stays or taxi journeys.”
£10,000 on taxis
Taxi firm Addison Lee received over £10,000 from RSPCA accounts for journeys booked by Mr Mawson.
Eventually the police were alerted by Gerda Glage, the SELB chairman, and her husband Ivan House, and a forensic audit was carried out on their accounts between 2012 and 2018.
Mr Mawson was removed from his RSPCA post in September, 2018 and later questioned by police officers.
“He claimed that it was no secret that he was using charity funds for hotel and taxi expenses and that he submitted relevant claims.”
The prosecution also produced a map of unnecessary taxi journeys billed by Mr Mawson.
‘Dodgy neighbour’
Mr Mawson said a “dodgy neighbour” who had at least one spell in prison resulted in Premier Inn allowing him to stay for additional nights.
However, Mr Mawson never called the police about any issues with the neighbour, said the prosecutor.
“Even assuming that the charity was aware of this, which is not accepted, and endorsed his use of the charity’s bank accounts for that purpose, which is also not accepted, there were in fact 84 occasions when the charity paid for Premier Inn bookings when his dodgy neighbour cannot have been an issue to him, because he was in prison.
“So even if you were to give him the benefit of the doubt about some of the expenses it is difficult to see any defence to those bookings where no charity business was taking place or when his dodgy neighbour was in prison.”
The trial is expected to last seven days.