David Mawson, 50, enjoyed hundreds of nights in hotels he was not entitled to, plus free taxi journeys, billing all the expenses to the charity.
“You had no need to stay in hotels to carry out your work as a trustee and you were found to be dishonest by the jury,” Judge Matthew Boyle told him at Inner London Crown Court.
“You spent not less than one hundred thousand pounds of RSPCA funds for your own benefit and you did not have national or local permission to spend the money this way.”
Mawson, of Staines Road, Twickenham was convicted of one count of fraud by abuse of position between January 1, 2012 and December 21, 2017.
“You came to identify your own interests as synonymous with the interests of the RSPCA and in your evidence you appeared resentful of the paid employees of the charity.
“You thought you were entitled to stay in hotels and take taxis as your own reward for your charity work with your emboldened sense of entitlement.”
Mawson was one of only twenty national trustees in the entire country and still complains about the negative publicity he has received during the case.
“He has lived and breathed the RSPCA since his first involvement as a teenager and it represents a big part of his life,” said Greg Unwin, defending.
“He has spent thirty years of his life in service to this charity and it has ended ignominiously. The loss of his good character and reputation, plus the media coverage is an element of punishment alone.”
Mawson swindled £91,300 from the London South East Branch of the RSPCA on Premier Inn stays, plus over £10,000 in taxi journeys, but maintains that charity is not “particularly vulnerable” because it enjoys a £150m annual income.
“He was a very active and important member of the RSPCA,” said Mr Unwin of the defendant, who still claims many of the expenses he defrauded were legitimate.
Prosecutor Andrew Hallworth told the trial: “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.
“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 RSPCA London South East Branch (SELB) has three charity shops in West Norwood, Grove Park and Sydenham and 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,” said the prosecutor.
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.
Between 2013 and 2017 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.”
Taxi firm Addison Lee received over £10,000 from RSPCA accounts for journeys booked by Mawson.
Eventually the police were alerted by SELB Chair Gerda Glage and her husband Ivan House and accountants completed a full forensic audit of their accounts between 2012 and 2018.
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 Mawson.
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, Mawson never called the police about any issues with the neighbour, said the prosecutor.
The court heard a victim impact statement from the SELB, which said the losses were equivalent to homing 255 cats and neutering 1000.
There had been a 75% cut in the number of animals the SELB were able to assist and the fraud had “damaged the morale of the RSPCA” and brought the respected charity into disrepute.
Judge Boyle told Mawson, who does not work and lives on disability benefits: “The damage done to the SELB was substantial. That money could have been used to assist large numbers of animals and their owners.
“There is clear damage to the morale and finances of the charity, but even now you still lack insight into the scale of your dishonesty and downplayed your behaviour to the Probation Service.
“This was sustained offending over a period of time and was relatively sophisticated, using multiple means to extract money from the charity.
“This was a very serious breach of trust,” added the Judge, conceding: “When you were not offending the charity you were doing good work for it.”
First-time offender Mawson was told he would be paroled after completing 40% of the custodial sentence.
