John Briers denies the allegations against him and is on trial over the alleged fraud against the charity (Picture: North News)

A former chief executive at Age Concern is alleged to have stolen more than £700,000 during an eight-year fraud.

John Briers is alleged to have paid 60 cheques into his own bank account, gave himself 12 unauthorised bonuses and 19 additional pension contributions.

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Briers, who at one point earned almost £6,000 a month, denies the charges against him relating to his time as CEO at Age Concern South Tyneside from January 2007 to August 2015.

He is currently on trial at Newcastle Crown Court where jurors heard he was suspended after a financial manager noticed a supporting document for one of the payments.


They believed it was fraudulent and an investigation discovered templates of blank invoices for firms linked to the organisation in his office.

A court heard that he pocketed over £700,000 from Age Concern over an eight-year period (Picture: North News and Pictures)

Prosecutor Anthony Dunne told the court: ‘He made most of those payments simply by writing out cheques to himself.



‘He then covered his tracks by pretending that those fraudulent payments were either payments to companies who had supplied good and services to Age Concern or bonus payments that were approved by the charity’s board of trustees or special payments, also agreed by the board, or a sub-committee of the board.

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‘The defendant created false documents to explain those fraudulent payments.

‘In the end, he was caught out because one of the documents he created contained obvious mistakes and the finance manager with the charity noticed. In total, he stole over £700,000 from the charity through these means.’

The court heard the money was taken from the two limbs of the organisation, one being the charity, which he was Chief Executive of, and the other was the trading company, which he was Secretary of.

Prosecutors claim Briers pocketed £433,236 through fraudulent cheques which he claimed were for suppliers, that he paid himself £105,560 in bonuses, including a special, additional monthly salary of £5,756, on one occasion, and that he used £169,703 of the charity’s cash to top-up his pension.

Mr Dunne said Briers used fake invoices and even fraudulent minutes of board meetings in a bid to cover his tracks.

Briers, from Gateshead, made no comment during police interview.

He later claimed payments were diverted to his account simply so he could pay suppliers in cash.

He denies all charges and the trial continues.