An ex-charity trustee has admitted committing fraud while he was heading up a privatised probation organisation.

Hugh Richard Vaughan Morgan Williams took £26,966 the from Durham and Tees Valley Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) while he was chairman.

Charges relating to his time as a trustee of Cowesby Charity, which helps people in and around Cowesby near Thirsk, are set to be dropped by the prosecution, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 70-year-old, of North Riding Rise, Thornton-le-Moor, near Thirsk, pleaded guilty to fraud between January 1, 2015, and February 1, 2016, relating to his time at the CRC, during a brief hearing.

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Richard Herrman, prosecuting, said the Crown Prosecution Service would offer no evidence in relation to the other charges the defendant was facing.

He was charged with fraud by abuse of position at charity between April 1, 2012 to January 31, 2015, but that count will no longer go ahead.

Separate false accounting charges, relating to accounts for the charity he allegedly submitted to the Charities Commission and to a local clergyman between March 2012 and May 2016, will also be dropped, the court heard.

Morgan Williams was released on unconditional bail until his sentencing hearing.

Judge Timothy Stead said: “I have adjourned the case until June 6. I can’t give you any indication of what you sentence you will get.”