A businessman with an annual salary of more than £100,000 has been jailed after diverting a company's money into his own account.

Financial director Sean Bullman, of Priory Road, Malvern, embezzled over £25,000 and tried to persuade a judge he had given the missing cash to charity.

Judge Michael Addison refused to believe him and sent the 39-year-old father of four to prison for 15 months.

Bullman admitted 22 counts of false accounting whilst employed as a director of Gearhouse Group Plc, which supplied outdoor broadcasting services to TV firms.

Judge Addison, sitting at Guildford Crown Court last Friday, heard how Bullman was under "great strain" caring for a seven-year-old daughter with cystic fibrosis.

Bullman falsified cheque stubs between February 1998 and July 2000, indicating that the money had been spent on legitimate purposes.

Judge Addison would not accept an altered indictment suggesting the money had in fact been paid to various charities.

Stuart Trimmer, defending, said: "The company's performance in the stock market over this period had fallen considerably and Mr Bull-man was forced to tell all charities that the company was no longer donating money.

"He spoke with his chief executive and suggested that the money should be paid into his own bank account and then paid out anonymously to various charities," he claimed.

The board of Gearhouse Group, based in Chertsey, Surrey, was not made aware of this arrangement, alth-ough documents indicating that money was paid to the British Heart Foundation and Cystic Fibrosis charities were read in court.

Bullman was offered the chance to have the sentencing adjourned to investigate the claims but rejected it.

Judge Addison told him: "Either this is a matter of false accounting which equals theft, or Mr Bullman should have in fact pleaded not guilty."

The 39 year old defendant left the company soon after July, 2000.

The court heard how negotiations over Bullman's severance pay revealed the scam.

Defence counsel Mr Trimmer said that not only had his client not received his full severance pay but had also sold his house and paid the outstanding debt to the company outright.