Former Redditch council leader David Cartwright jailed for three years

Feb 28 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

The Court was told Cartwright stole from the charity by raiding the petty cash and forging a Trustee’s signature on the charity cheque book. He also defrauded taxpayers and a charitable trust by filing bogus funding applications and invoices for work.

Mark Cotter, prosecuting, said: “By dishonestly obtaining funding for SODI he was quite literally putting money into the bank he was stealing from. He was creating a cash cow so he could milk it.”

The court heard Cartwright, who earned the nickname “dodgy Dave,” used the cash to pay for family holidays, new carpets, riding lessons for his daughter and also to pay off his credit cards. Mr Cotter described his dishonesty as “endemic” adding: “The counts on the indictment do not represent the only dishonest behaviour he engaged upon.”

Antonie Muller, defending, said the intentions of Cartwright, whose life was characterised by “exemplary public service”, were honest when he joined the charity but the situation “overwhelmed him and he became dishonest”.

Cartwright had sold his house to repay some money taken from the charity.