A former employee at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) who stole £16,000 from its Students’ Union by pocketing profits from events he organised there, has received an eight-month prison sentence. 

Jonathan Alexander, 27, received the sentence on Tuesday after admitting to the crime at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court.

The local resident began to stockpile revenue after three years in his role as Events Co-ordinator at the Students’ Union, in order to fund a gambling habit, the court heard.

Alexander pocketed money from June 2015 until February 2016, when one of his colleagues noticed that funds from various events held by the Union had not been reaching its bank account.

Alexander then produced a three-page confession letter detailing what he had done and how.

“There was one occasion where he had been to a function and had £4,000 – he went straight off to another venue taking that with him,” said prosecutor Charles Kellett.

“He said he had this money in a bag, but he put the bag down and it disappeared.”

Mr Kellett added that Alexander believed the best way to get the money back to be to gamble, borrowing money from friends and family, including £9,500 from his grandparents.

Alexander also took further money from events at the Student’s Union. He ultimately stole £16,000 from his employer before being arrested by police on university premises in February.

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The detainee told officers that he had kept some money in a safe at home, but that he had been having problems with his partner who had the key to the safe.

Alexander now has a new partner, who is expecting a baby in May, and his barrister said he hopes to pay back all of the £16,000 to ARU.

Turning down a plea for a suspended sentence, Judge Cooper told the defendant: “You started to keep takings from the student body for yourself instead of banking them and got into a downward spiral of dishonesty and debt.

“This involved lying to those close to you for fear of being found out. However, you made a full confession which was unprompted.

“You thought gambling was the solution but in fact it was the problem,” Judge Cooper said. “This was a high breach of trust and it was students’ money that you stole.”