A GREEDY regeneration manager who ripped off almost £25,000 from the deprived community he was supposed to be helping has been jailed for 12 months.

Zubare Khan, who earned £42,000 a year as assistant executive officer with Bradford Trident, defrauded the organisation to fund building work on his own four homes.

Khan, 36, of Parkside Road, West Bowling, Bradford, even had the audacity to ask his boss for a reference after owning up to fleecing the publicly funded community initiative, Bradford Crown Court heard.

He billed Bradford Trident for minibus outings for his family to the seaside and an amusement park and to provide transport for his brother's wedding.

Khan was in charge of maintaining Trident's buildings as part of its regeneration work in West Bowling and Marshfields.

He was "a corrupting influence" on contractors who agreed to inflate their repair bills to cover his dishonesty, prosecutor Andrew Dallas said yesterday.

Khan pleaded guilty in October last year to defrauding Bradford Trident out of £24,574 between October 21, 2010, and December 1, 2011.

Mr Dallas said Bradford Trident was financed by The New Deal for Communities group that had a £1 million annual turnover.

Khan was a graduate when he joined Bradford Trident in 2000 and the initiative then funded his Masters degree, the court heard.

In December, 2011, the fraud was discovered by chief executive Mick Binns and Khan was suspended.

"He asked for a reference but Mr Binns declined," Mr Dallas said.

Khan had £750 of work done on his house in Parkside Road, telling the contractor he needed the property doing up quickly for his brother's wedding. He billed Bradford Trident, saying it was for repairs to a community centre.

Mr Dallas said there was "a degree of complicity" to the fraud by some contractors, and a junior staff member knew about the minibus hire scam and felt pressured and bullied by Khan.

Khan's barrister, Nick Worsley, said: "He appears before you today a broken man."

Khan had stupidly taken from an organisation that he had helped to create.

"He ruined ten years of work in just a year," Mr Worsley said.

After his father died, Khan was seen as the successful one in the family and he felt pressured to finance things.

He had already paid back more than £9,000 of the money and would have given it all back if his assets had not been frozen by investigating officers.

Khan was now training to be a nurse. He lived on benefits and was carer to his sick mother.

He was suffering from depression and the case had taken its toll on his his mental and physical health.

"It is not the whine of a man who says 'poor me'; this is a man who fully appreciates the impact his offending has had," Mr Worsley said.

Khan, a father of four, had been isolated and ostracised in the community.

"His outgoings got too much for him and instead of cutting his cloth, he stole," Mr Worsley said.

"Everything he has worked for has gone. The impact of his actions will echo for a long time in his community.

"He knows he will never again be in the position which he has fallen from."

Judge Peter Benson said Khan was a capable and intelligent man who had done a lot of good work for his community.

But he told him: "This was systematic and sophisticated offending which was quite deliberate and calculated and involved the corruption of others.

"You were very well paid indeed and you were the owner of four properties in the Bradford district. You were a prosperous and wealthy man. You wanted to enhance your already high status in the community and you got greedy and you went about a sophisticated fraud."

Trident's chief executive Mick Binns said after the sentencing: "As far as we are concerned, it happened three and a half years ago and we have moved on. But we are pleased it is sorted out."

After the case, Detective Constable Richard Oxley, of Bradford District CID, said: "Khan took advantage of his senior role with a community organisation to help himself to thousands of pounds of public money.

"This cash was intended for the regeneration of a deprived inner city area, but was used by Khan for his own personal benefit.

"Defrauding the public purse is a serious criminal matter and the courts have recognised this with the sentence he has received.

"Today marks the end of what has been a lengthy and complex investigation and I would like to thank all those who have assisted in bringing it to this successful conclusion."