CASH from a Nantwich Charity shop, managed by his wife, was pocketed by a man doing voluntary work in preparation for leaving prison.

A jury at Knutsford Crown Court heard that David Waterhouse was on day release from Sudbury Open Prison in Derbyshire and working as a volunteer at Cheshire Wildlife Trust's Reaseheath headquarters when £1,000 went missing from the British Heart Foundation.

In addition to doing office work at the Trust, he spent part of the day helping his wife, Gail, at the shop before returning to prison

The court was told that around the May Bank Holiday four days' takings from the shop, which should have gone into the night safe at Barclays Bank, had gone missing.

Challenged over the disappearance, 45-year-old Waterhouse, of Laburnum House, Fields Farm, Queens Drive, Nantwich, denied he had taken the money.

He pleaded not guilty to four counts of theft and claimed that his wife's former husband, Frank Boughey, who works for Barclays Bank, Radbroke Hall, Knutsford, has conspired with other bank staff to frame him.

But his story was fanciful, said John Williams, prosecuting, and was an attempt to cover up the truth - that he had stolen the takings after volunteering to take the money to the night safe.

Waterhouse was jailed for 18 months and ordered to serve the 344 days balance of his prison sentence consecutively.

The court was told that his wife first became a volunteer at the Heart Foundation shop earlier this year and in April was appointed to the staff as manager. Her daughter and a son then became volunteers and Waterhouse sometimes went in to help out during his time at Reaseheath.

Assistant shop manager, Mrs Elizabeth Edwards, said Mrs Waterhouse was on holiday on June 2 when she asked a volunteer to go to the bank and collect the night safe wallet from the previous night. When he returned he said no wallet had been deposited.

She contacted Mrs Waterhouse who said her husband had paid the money in that night and something must be wrong. As a result Mrs Waterhouse paid the missing £467 from her own resources. She claimed that bank paying in slips were missing because coffee had been spilt on them.

When checks were made two bank slips appeared to have forged bank stamps on them.

The court heard that, after an inquiry, Mrs Waterhouse was suspended and then dismissed by the charity over the missing money.

When Waterhouse was arrested at the end of June, a cheque, which should have been paid into the bank, and paying in slips were found in his briefcase.

Waterhouse claimed these had appeared, without explanation, in his pigeon hole at the wildlife trust offices, with, he believed, the intention of incriminating him.

Sentencing Waterhouse, Mr Recorder O'Toole, said he was a dishonest man and a person prepared to blame anyone to avoid being caught himself.

He had cast suspicion on Mr Boughey, bank staff at Nantwich and a shop assistant and could have cost them their jobs.

"Sadly your wife was duped by you to come to court and blame Mr Boughey. You were on licence from prison and couldn't resist the temptation of taking cash and cheques when your wife trusted you to take them to the bank. Goodness knows why she trusted you, but, as she said, love is blind."

He had caused her to lose a job she wanted very much he added.