CAB man cleared of false accounts

Dale Foster will be found not guilty of false accounting when the trial ends

A jury at Swansea Crown Court is to be directed to clear a worker of all charges of false accounting at a Citizens' Advice Bureau.

Dale Foster and his wife Sally, from Swansea, will also be found not guilty of one of 11 theft charges they face.

Mrs Foster still faces 10 charges of theft and six of false accounting. Mr Foster, 65, faces 10 theft charges.

The couple are accused of taking £650,000 from the CAB in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, over five years.

Judge Gerald Price directed the jury to return the not guilty verdicts once they retire after all the evidence has been presented.

The judge said the Fosters' expenses question was a 'moveable feast'

He made the intervention after comparing the couple's situation - they are charged with the theft of £75,847 in expenses - with the "debacle" over MPs' expenses.

The court heard the Ammanford bureau appeared to have no clear guidelines as to what could and could not be claimed in expenses, whether staff could travel by first-class rail or what standard of hotel they could use.

Mrs Foster, 49, had been allowed "complete discretion" in approving expenses claims, including her own, the court was told, and the board of trustees had approved the expenditure year after year.

Judge Price said the expression of surprise by members of the board at the total claimed by the Fosters, who live in city's Maritime Quarter, "came only after the proverbial horse had bolted".

He said the prosecution now accepted that not all the £75,847 had been stolen and could not put figure on how much it claimed had been stolen.

'Accounts'

He added that Swansea Crown Court was not a "court of morals" and the question of expenses was "a movable feast" about which no-one on the CAB bureau's board of trustees had ever raised questions.

Judge Price said that in relation to the charges of false accounting it was Mrs Foster and not Mr Foster who was responsible for the accounts submitted to the board.

The prosecution claims the couple "systematically plundered" the CAB office they ran to finance a lifestyle which included skiing holidays, jewellery, fine art, furniture and champagne.

The trial continues.