A TREASURER who defrauded his club out of more than £200,000 to fund his lifestyle and gambling habit, has been jailed.

Daniel Powell, 39, of Starcross was blowing £2,000 a day on gambling and used some of the money to pay for family holidays and lending cash to family and friends.

Over almost four years, Powell falsified annual accounts as he helped himself to £203,637 from the Great Western Railway Club coffers in Exeter.

Powell admitted fraud by false representation.

Exeter Crown Court heard Powell, of The Strand, Starcross, claimed he had won £25,000 gambling and a £70,000 Audi car which he sold for £48,000 and gave back to the club after he had been rumbled by a suspicious committee member.

Powell helped himself to £400 in coins from slot machines in the club which added to suspicions about his conduct before when confronted, he confessed taking £120,000 from the club.

A club member told the court the exact amount of the fraud may never be known but it has had ‘an immediate and substantial impact on the club’ with uncertainty about its future and internal conflicts caused by Powell's ‘abuse and betrayal’.

Barrister Mary Aspinall-Miles, defending, said: ‘There was an unfortunate and disastrous combination of incompetence. He found himself dealing with financial matters outside his expertise.’

She said he spiralled into a pattern of shameful behaviour as he ‘lost his moral compass as his personal life crashed around his ears with a marriage split and he became a gambling addict’.

Powell, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for two years and eight months.

Judge James Patrick said he falsified accounts and made over 300 transfers in a ‘staggering level’ of fraud.

He said: ‘You transferred a massive amount of money from the club into your own bank account where you used it in your own personal expenses, funding holidays, lent it to a number of people and gambled.’

A confiscation hearing will be held later.