A FORMER Labour Party branch treasurer has been jailed for six months for stealing more than £9,000 from the organisation's account.

Paul Murphy, 38, lined his own pocket with party funds for two years by taking money out of a cash machine and using a Visa card to pay for a number of personal transactions, including settling bills on a holiday in Jamaica.

The former paramedic said he took the money from Scarborough and Whitby Labour Party because he was £20,000 in debt, had negative equity on his home and was struggling to make the mortgage repayments.

York Crown Court heard Murphy had made the branch's finances his own domain after he became treasurer in 2000 and moved its account to the Co-operative Bank.

He started to take money out just a few hours after the account was set up.

The deception came to light when the branch appointed a new chairman and Murphy resigned from his position.

His successor then asked Murphy to help organise the branch's finances, but he never did. Instead he withdrew a further £910 from the account, even though he no longer had an official position.

Murphy was arrested and it emerged he had made more than 600 cash withdrawals from the account in a year and 121 debit card transactions over the two years.

He told police he had withdrawn £16,605 from the account during his time as treasurer and admitted stealing £9,275 of it at an earlier hearing.

Murphy, now of Wortley, Barnsley, admitted three charges of theft and one charge of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

Andrew Bailey, in mitigation, said Murphy ran into financial trouble after he suffered a spinal injury and lost his job with the ambulance service.