A MAN who defrauded a construction company in Westhoughton for more than £350,000 has been jailed today for four years.

Matthew Farrimond sent himself money under the guise of charity donations, before using the cash to fund a lavish lifestyle which included booking holidays and buying pedigree kittens.

The 41-year-old, from Buckshaw Village, Chorley, had spent a number of years as finance manager at the firm, before he was arrested on January 10, 2017.

He pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud by false representation and one count of money laundering at an earlier hearing.

PC Kate Riley, of GMP’s Economic Crime Section, said: “Farrimond’s role was to safeguard the financial interests of the company he worked for, but he was the biggest threat to their hard-earned funds.

“That he would deceitfully take money from the company he worked for is one thing, but he should be ashamed of the fact he hid his fraud by pretending to pay charities.

“Even though he managed to take funds for a number of months, today’s sentence proves that you cannot get away with stealing money that doesn’t belong to you.

“Our specialist officers work tirelessly to uncover fraudulent activity and bring those responsible, like Farrimond, to justice.”

In November 2016, two cheque stubs were found showing large payments to charities, which were not planned by the company.

Further investigation found that this money had been paid into Farrimond’s account, rather than the charity on the cheque.

It was discovered that Farrimond made nine payments from the business account into his own funds and created false invoices to conceal this from the company.

He fraudulently paid £369,000 from the business account into his funds, some of which he used to buy a house.

With the remainder of the money, Farrimond bought pedigree kittens, booked holidays and lived out a lavish lifestyle filled with days out and drinks.