A former volunteer at a Marie Curie shop in Shipley has avoided an immediate jail sentence after he stole more than £10,600 while he was working there.

But as well as giving Naser Pasha a suspended jail sentence Recorder Simon Jackson KC ordered the 40-year-old to pay back compensation to the charity at the rate of £150 a month for the next three years.

Pasha, who has some learning difficulties, will have to pay the money back out of his own benefits after he admitted stealing the it from takings he was meant to have deposited at a nearby bank.

Prosecutor Chloe Pitches told Bradford Crown Court today (Tues) that Pasha, who had no previous convictions, had been volunteering at the shop in Market Square between August 2021 and October 2022.

She said he was trusted to take the daily takings and deposit them in the bank’s night safe.

An audit later revealed that between September 2021 and October 2022 Pasha had stolen a total of £10,639.46 from the takings.

When Pasha, of Hazel Walk, Allerton, Bradford, was arrested by police in February 2023 he said he was really sorry and Recorder Jackson noted that there was no evidence of the defendant living a lavish lifestyle.

Barrister David Hall, for Pasha, described it as a significant fall from grace for his client.

“You fall to be sentenced for stealing over a period of about 11 months or so something over £10,600 from a charity that you were working for,” the judge told Pasha.

“You’re a man with learning difficulties but you do have the capacity to work.

“This was not sophisticated but it was a persistent theft at a time when you had been trusted despite being taken on for modest duties.

“You would have known that what you were doing was wrong. There is no suggestion that you lived a lavish lifestyle, but you stole the money from a charity trying to support people with serious illness.”

Recorder Jackson decided that Pasha’s 18-month jail sentence could be suspended for two years and he ordered him to do 150 hours unpaid work.

Pasha will also have to comply with a four-month electronically monitored curfew at his home between 7pm and 7am.