A former member of staff at Oxford Bus Company has been jailed after he admitted stealing almost £750,000 from his employers to fund a gambling addiction.

Colin Smart, 47, admitted the fraud, which he carried out between May 2011 and March 2017, and was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court earlier today.

The father-of-one, of Crundel Rise, Witney, was jailed for a total of four years.

At the time of the offences he was a business analyst at Oxford Bus Company, a position he used to steal a total of £733,390.

Smart stole cash that had been collected from kerbside ticket sellers.

He was one of the staff responsible for recording the money on to a computer system once it had been counted and manipulated the computer records to conceal the theft.

The money was deposited directly into his own personal bank accounts and used for gambling online.

His gambling losses outweighed his wins and he continued to fund his lifestyle, including expensive cars, by stealing from the company.

He was arrested on May 17, 2017, after online payments company PayPal flagged up suspicious activity to the bus company.

He was charged on September 5 last year and admitted of one count of fraud by abuse of position, one count of theft by employee and one count of concealing/disguising/converting/transferring /removing criminal property.

For full details see tomorrow's Oxford Mail.